Giving Wine a Rest

[Innkeeper]

From time to time the subject of resting wine after shipments comes up in passing. Not talking about aging here. That's a completely different subject. Since we also see postings from time to time that indicate some of our members don't practice resting, thought it might be time to air out the subject.

When wine is transported, it is disturbed, sort of like when you put different liquids in a container and whirl them around. They separate. Transporting wine isn't that vigourous, but the same general thing happens. Very frequently when recieving wines from a retailer, broker, or winery there is a note in the top of the box advising us to let it rest for a week to ten days. There are authorities that say even bringing wine home from a local store should be rested for a day or two, which we do, except for an emergency. The rule of thumb, we've thus developed from all this advice goes like this: Shipped from across the country - 10 days; halfway - a week; 200-500 miles - 5 days; home from the store - a day or two. We have definitely been able to tell the difference from wine drunk too soon after travelling, and the same wine tasted after a rest.

On our recent trip we picked up two bottles of Vichon Merlot at a wine store in the Heartland. One we drank on the road, and the other the other night. See the posting under Merlot. What we didn't say in that posting was that there was a discernable difference. The first being much sharper, and tighter. This had nothing to do with aging; only talking about 30 days here. The difference was in the resting.