A few days ago I decided to open a bottle of wine I bought about three years ago in Bangkok. It was the usual deal: buy one get one free. The wine was a 2000 chardonnay from Wente, an American winery which introduced Chardonnay to California (and the USA).
I drank the first bottle only a few weeks after purchasing the wine and to be honest, I was not very impressed. There was something badly structured about this wine, maybe the result of poor storage, maybe it was just not the best that Wente, an otherwise reliable house, had produced.
This time things were very different: here was a delicious, well-balanced chardonnay, with just enough oak to give it roundness, a wine arrived at its peak, with a long finish, perfectly ready to drink. Was it the same wine I failed to enjoy a few years ago? It was like Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde. The good and the ugly. What happened?
The first bottle had just travelled from the shop to my apartment. I should have waited at least a few weeks. And the wine was probably not ready yet. Time did it, and reasonably good storage. If it is true that almost 90 percent of wines do not really need to age, there are a small portion that require a bit of cellaring.
And cellaring in Thailand can be a little bit of a burden. First of all I have never been to any house or apartment building that had a real cellar. And a cellar in the tropics is not like a cellar in France. It probably won't be cool enough.
If you have plenty of funds and are building yourself a house, you can of course have a dedicated room, with constant air conditioning, to keep your wine collection. For most of us a more affordable possibility is to acquire a small wine cabinet. It will keep the wine at a stable 10-14 degrees centigrade and protect it from the sun and abrupt changes of temperature.
But for the majority of people a simple solution will be found in some quiet, shadowy spot hoping that the wine will accept to age gracefully with them.
A few things to keep in mind: avoid sunlight - and bright light in general - as much as you can. Store corked bottles horizontally to keep the cork wet. Bottles with a screw cap are less delicate and will not suffer from standing. Store your wine in a room that is well ventilated and where there is no strong odour.
Remember also that many bottles one can buy here do not really need much ageing, but a bottle of almost any kind of wine will benefit from a few weeks of rest after you've bought it.
There are many sources of vintage information. Be aware that generally such information is related to the kind of wine that needs ageing. Most whites will hardly benefit from more than a few months of rest. Many reds will not improve after a year or two. In general the better the year, the longer great wines can age.
Late-harvested wine can sometimes go for a long time. Reliable sources say that the best Hungarian Tokay Eszencia is the 1811. That's about 200 years old. True, the Eszencia can last almost forever. But to be good today it must have been kept in a very good cellar and not be disturbed by the many revolutions and wars that accompanied its long life.
I doubt many of us have that kind of ageing problem here in Thailand. My main advice is to enjoy the wine while you can, and just use common sense for your storage. No sun, a little light, no bad smells, no strong vibration.
As for the 2000 Chardonnay from Wente, I paid 1,395 baht for the two bottles. The bottle I drank recently was kept in a modest wine cabinet. It did the job.
Email: chateaudo377@gmail.com
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