It happened again the other day. A friend – who for the purposes of this story will remain nameless – told me he had just tipped an old bottle of excellent old wine down the sink. He had extracted the cork with care and poured a small amount into a glass to evaluate. He didn’t like the smell and thought the palate rather thin so down the drain it went. It’s a story I’ve heard dozens of times, which doesn’t mean I’m getting inured to it.
So I asked this friend exactly what he smelt and tasted. In reply he described with impressive detail and accuracy exactly what I’d have expected that very same bottle to have smelt and tasted of immediately its cork had been extracted: musty, meaty aromas with very little by way of fruit, plus a palate lacking true structure and fruit, plus an edginess to its acidity.
Maybe it’s because not enough of us regularly drink truly mature wine that we can fail to recognise the progress many such wines undergo once they’ve finally been exposed to air. If you don’t like the immediate smell or taste of a just-opened bottle of old red, decant it. Give it the chance to benefit from some gas exchange, or breathing. The results are often truly startling. It’s hard to generalise, for with old wines it’s a bottle-by-bottle thing, but the transformation possible within the span of just 15-30 minutes can be remarkable. Less remarkable, perhaps to those who drink such wines all the time, but astonishing if for you it’s just an occasional thing.
So please keep this in mind when next you open that special bottle you’ve been hoarding away for a special event or person. Be prepared for an initial setback but be aware that this is often just part of the process. Keep a clean decanter or glass jug on standby – it could change your day.
And, if the wine is sealed with a cork, remember that the important end of the cork is that which has been in contact with the wine itself – not necessarily the end you see after removing the capsule.
Finally, just because a cork might crumble or otherwise disintegrate on opening, don’t just dismiss or write off the wine in the bottle. Take into account all I’ve been saying and taste the wine for what it is, breathing it if needed. You’re drinking the wine, not the cork nor the bottle.
