Wine Storeage

[tomstevenson]

I'm not a connoisseur, but I love wine and studying it is my job. Holding a wine at close to zero is impractical unless you happen to be in a part of the world where that is the norm. I was not suggesting that Bob should keep his wine at very low temperatures, just not to worry at any consistent temperature above freezing and below 12 Celsius, as it would be ideal to one degree or another for longterm storage (providing its not in a refrigerator!). The most immaculately preserved wine I have tasted in my life has been the Heidsieck 1907 Gout Americain that had spent 80 years at a constant 4 Celsius at the bottom of the Baltic. As for the degradation of wine being stored at a constant temperature above 12 Celsius, there are plenty of scientific papers demonstrating this (although, again, I emphasis that a constant 20 is better than bouncing from 1 to 12 Celsius). I could give many examples from personal experience, but the one that brought the 12+ point home to me was a visit to Flora Springs in 1993, when the Chardonnay back to 1989 was fine, but the 1988 and 1987 had that oxidised-cum-maderised character a white wine has once its gone over. I asked for second bottles to be opened, but they were the same and I was told they were all like that. My 1987s at home were still fine. Flora Springs claimed at that time to have a constant 14 Celsius, my cellar is not as good as I would like, but it has a constant 12. To this I would add that the difference in potential longevity between Champagnes coming from cellars with a constant 9.5 Celsius (such as Pol Roger) or 10 Celsius (various) and those at 11 Celsius (average) is well known. Oh, and Randy, that's my last post on the matter: I won't be lured in again!