Best practices to handling a 20+ year old wine.

[sadistick]

I will be opening a '82 Lynch Bages this weekend for a anniversary dinner. I have heard various opinions on best practices, so I seek to find a consensus amongst eG's wine aficionados.

- How long to leave the bottle up right to let the sediment settle? Can this be done at room temp?

- How long prior to drinking should I open it? Should it be decanted? If so, should it be strained through cheese cloth?

That pretty much does it...very interested to hear what you folks have to say.

Cheers,

-Justin

[djsexyb]

hey justin good luck with the party, hope the menu worked out ok. be sure to let us know how it went, and dont forget a WTN too.

Mike

[Mano]

Set it upright anywhere from the day before to the morning of your dinner.

Keep it at "room temperature", which, for a bordeaux is around 60-65F.

Strain through a cheesecloth or one of those wine strainers.

Decant, but for how long, better ask someone else. I'd give it 30-60 minutes, but there's no rhyme or reason why.

Enjoy the wine, it's from a spectacular year.

[DutchMuse]

Leave the bottle standing up at room (or cellar) temperature for 24-48 hours in advance. Gentle decanting is fine to remove the wine from the sediment at the bottom (probably only half an hour or so before serving so you can watch the evolution in the glass) but another method winegeeks like is to "Audoze" it. This means to stand it upright, cork pulled, for about 3 hours before serving. Do not shake the bottle, pour or move it after removing the cork. Patiently wait about 3 hours, then serve. Sante!

[Busboy]

If you decant properly you shouldn't have to strain it through cheese clothe which, I suspect, will not remove the finest sediment, anyway. Thay being said, if you haven't done it before, decanting can be a bit tricky (though very impressive to the witnesses).

Perhaps most important, though, is to be very careful with your cork, which will be much more fragile than it was a quarter of a century ago.

[GordonCooks]

82 Pauillacs are pretty sturdy and I've never found sendiment to be a huge problem. Decant properly and taste - will evolve over the next hour and you may find it it's best in 2-3 hours. I thought it peaking last year or so - cheers

[Andrew Fenton]

Be sure to pour it through The Wine Clip. Its rare-earth magnets will perk that old wine right up!

[sadistick]

Thanks for the tips, I will be sure to post pictures and some WTN's here as well.

I must admit however, the one thing which scares me a bit is removing the cork, as Busboy mentioned. Typically when I have an older wine, someone else is doing that...any things to keep in mind and/or suggestions for removing a cork which is that old?

[Busboy]

My practice on old wine came as a young waiter in a swank restaurant...there was little more unnerving to me at the time than having a table of swells watch closely as I tried desparately not to rip up the cork on their $200 bottle of wine. It just takes practice and a soft touch. Unfortunately, it's hard to practice on old Bordeaux very often.

I'm assuming that you open enough good wine to recognize a decent corkscrew. If not, talk to a reputable wine merchant and get one from him. You don't need the chrome-plated $80 dollar "rabbit ear" type, so don't let him sell you that. A good "waiter's" corkscrew (the kind that kind of resembles a pocketknife) will be fine. Look for a long "worm" with a wide coil. This type, with the hinge in the piece that rests on the lip of the bottle is the best. I've also seen these work well, too. As you probably know anything that looks like this is right out.

Take an extra moment to make sure that you've centered the worm, and twist it in slowly. Old corks seem to shrink a bit and it is entirely possible to shove the cork into the bottle if you punch the worm in too quickly. This has happened to me. It's rather embarrassing, though not fatal if you're decanting anyway.

Make sure you get the screw in as far as possible. Better a microscopic bit of cork in the wine because the point punched through the bottom of the cork, than trying to extract the last quarter of the cork after it separated from the top three-quarters because you didn't put it in far enough.

In my experience, the first bit is the easiest part; it's when you think you're home free that the thing crumbles and breaks on you. Pull slow and, once it starts coming out, twist very gently in the direction that drives the screw deeper at the same time. I also find that gripping the cork with the bottom of your hand as you twist out the last few millimeters gives an extra measure of protection.

Holding your breath always works for me.

And if it breaks, get the cheese cloth out.

[GordonCooks]

Thanks for the tips, I will be sure to post pictures and some WTN's here as well.

I must admit however, the one thing which scares me a bit is removing the cork, as Busboy mentioned.  Typically when I have an older wine, someone else is doing that...any things to keep in mind and/or suggestions for removing a cork which is that old?

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Patience is a virtue - remove foil and check the seepage (or visible wine on the top of the cork) Give the cork a super light push with your thumb to see how tight it is. If it descends slightly - be very careful with the corkscrew - I usually angle the worm into the cork applying pressure to the side of the neck rather than down.

[Mano]

I must admit however, the one thing which scares me a bit is removing the cork, as Busboy mentioned.  Typically when I have an older wine, someone else is doing that...any things to keep in mind and/or suggestions for removing a cork which is that old?

←

I usually angle the worm into the cork applying pressure to the side of the neck rather than down.

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Gordon, how is that done? I use a Screwpull pocket or their lever model, both of which applies equal downward pressure to the neck.

[bobferdon]

Audouze method is the way to deal with this. Below was taken from another wine website...

"I tried the Audouze method with these, as I had them out in the morning. I popped the corks at about 11 AM, didn't remove any wine, reinserted a fresh cork, and then drove for 3 hours to a friend's for the Christmas weekend. When I'm going to transport bottles this way, I pull them out 10 - 14 days beforehand, sharply twist them by the necks back and forth a few times to dislodge any sediment on the sides of the bottles, then stand them up at a slight angle so the sediment will collect at the back corners of the bottles, away from the labels. Later, I stand the bottles up, in a box, while in the car. This works well.

At around 4 PM, we tried a little taste from each bottle and then left them uncorked. They were pretty fresh and unevolved at that point.

At around 7 PM, we started working on these Burgs, and that bit of pouring and extra air helped them finally open fully, which only occurred at around 8 PM!

'89 Musigny - I was surprised at how much depth and body this had, at least compared to another bottle I had opened a couple of years back. That one must have been affected by low-level TCA. This one had lovely fresh strawberry fruit with excellent breed. Another very fine '89 that is drinking extremely well now, with proper air time and a cool serving temp.

'90 Amoureuses - Very much like the Musigny (which was the idea), but a bit more depth and body (again expected, but the '89 which wasn't as light as expected, was close). This had lovely smooth succulent ripe fruit, nothing over-ripe at all. The Musigny *did* have that touch of refinement though, that, for me, defines the grand crus.

'83 and '88 Rugiens (Glantenay, and Bouley) - both showing very well, with ripe fruit and no hard edges (finally, after 7 pm!). Darker fruited and a bit "sturdier" than the Chambolles, but very attractive and smooth. They seemed to have reacted well to the aeration method.

'83 Corton Renardes (Delarche) - a very nice showing for this wine, using this aeration method (I've had it a couple times before). Dark, smooth, sweet fruit with good length and vitality, and none of the decline or tannins that often show up in '83s. This too needed every bit of the allocated time to round out and flesh out!

We drank these leisurely over the course of maybe 4 hours and they all held up perfectly well, showing no decline whatsoever. I have had the Rugiens wines before, as well as the Corton, which were decanted when I had them before. I think Burgs of these ages and even back to the mid-'60s, handle gentle decanting well, at least into a narrow-profile decanter or carafe (if the wine is going to be left there for an extended time). But this slower aeration method *may* have resulted in a bit stronger showing, and *may* have helped the wines show well over a rather extended period of time. More experimentation is required! That's what it boils down to. All these wines respond well to air time. The only questions are - how to introduce the air, and for what length of time, etc, You have to experiment and see what happens with different styles of wines from different vintages and of different ages. It shouldn't be rocket science (but it is close! ).

Happy New Year to All! Regards, Paul"