How to Drink Better Wine - Even If You Don’t Drink Different Wine! Part 2 - Temps

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:19:17 -0700

Part II - Temperatures: where you will discover my favorite gifts from my wife.

I blame this column on my wife. She enables my obsessions, bless her. She knows that I love numbers, and looking for patterns in numbers. Whether it was finding the bingo on everyone’s card when I was 3, keeping baseball stats with my brother every Summer, to being the director of Pricing at a national wireless company, I am proud to admit how happy I am to be a numbers guy.

Of course you are not surprised because, as you know from Part 1, I have a personality disorder. And, it appears that wine collecting brings it forward to a frightening degree. And speaking of degrees, my affinity for numbers and specifically, with temperatures is not lost on her, either. Never one to miss a chance to reinforce my silly obsessions, she kindly indulges me with special gifts at christmas time. It is safe to say that I can measure the temperature of just about anything, any time, any where, with these gifts. She gave me a weather station that I keep on the night stand, with two thermometers, one indoor and one outdoor. Of course, I moved the outdoor probe to the wine cellar, so I can monitor the rise and fall of temps throughout the day, the week, and the seasons. It has come in handy, alerting me to a frozen A/C coil, or a door left open, or the absolute thrill of marking the day the cellar temperature fell after the long summer. I’m sure there’s an App for that for my iPad, and I look forward to receiving a similar gift this Christmas.

I have many different thermometers -- dipsticks for glasses, banded cuffs for bottles, min-max digital readouts (redundant for the cellar), instant-read infra-red thermometers for travel. I have measured cellar temps in Margaux, barrel temps in Pomerol, and serving temps at three star restaurants in Las Vegas. I check temps at blind tastings, notice them at professional events, and even comment on them to caterers at press events. You should see the collection of insulated wine keepers, totes, specialized carafes and bottle wraps I keep. The freezer is stuffed full of blue blocks and white polar packs. Barbara also gave me a magnificent EuroCave 2 bottle wine keeper that holds white or red wines at proper serving temperatures with vacuum seals. She also knows that this is flawed because it doesn’t tell me the actual temperature, it merely requires me to trust it. So I put a thermometer in it, and found it to be off by a couple of degrees!

I hope you are laughing at me, because I clearly deserve it!

The point of all this is to prove the headline -- you can drink better wine, even if you don’t drink different wine, by paying a little attention to the details. And temps are important at several stages in the life of wine. Some of the most profound wines are grown in regions where the diurnals (the difference between daytime and night time temps) are the biggest. One of the dilemmas facing Texas wine growers is the fact that it just doesn’t get cold enough at night in many areas that are otherwise well suited for grape growing.

Again focusing on what you can control with the wine you already have, let’s look at temperatures for Storage, and for Service.

2. Temperature

If you are a daily drinker and really never build up an inventory, there is no need to be especially concerned about storing wine. And the basic fact is that 90%+ of all wines do not improve with age, so storage is really irrelevant. However, if you do want to buy and hold a few bottles, the first accessory you should get is a wine fridge. I’ve had good luck with several different models, from the $100-300 dorm-size units by Haier at Home Depot to full size EuroCaves from Wine Enthusiast for long-term storage of fine bottles. If you live in Texas or anywhere without a real basement, it’s essential.

Wine should be stored for long-term keeping in a range between 50-65 degrees. While it does not have to be a constant 57 degrees, any fluctuations should be gradual, by which I mean seasonal. The two basement cellars I have had in Philadelphia drop to about 55 degrees from November to February, then rise gradually to the mid 60’s in the Summer. I run a portable A/C unit during the hottest months to make sure it doesn’t go above 65. This gradual rise and fall of temps is not a problem for even the finest wines. No less than Chateau Margaux states the following: fluctuations are beneficial as long as they are gentle and moderate. Cold weather in winter does not really disturb the bottles above 10°C (50°F) ; neither does hot weather in summer, if the temperature does not go over 18° (64°F) for too long. It has often been said that an average temperature of 14° (57°F) is 'ideal' ; nothing proves that this should be constant, but if there is variation, it should be slow without sudden swings.

If you don’t have a basement, or a wine fridge, it’s better to store your wines in the kitchen fridge than in a room above 72 degrees. I had to do this in California one year, and none of the wines I stored in the kitchen fridge posed any problems in later years. I don’t recommend this for more than necessary, but do avoid exposing wines to prolonged temps above 75-80 degrees. And, have no fear of putting a bottle directly in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, or plunging it into ice for a rapid chill.

As for serving, keep the following in mind:
• Make sure your reds are in fact, cool enough. Bordeaux should be served at about 60-64 degrees. Anything more, and you will lose fruit and structure, replaced with sensations of alcohol and glycerin. It’s not a problem to pour the wine slightly below, and allow the room bring it to temperature. Don’t over pour, better to refill than let it get too warm too quickly. And try this simple test on your wine geek friend: Pour the same red wine at two different temperatures, it is likely that the cooler one will taste better.
• Make sure your whites are, in fact, not too cold. White wine straight from the fridge is about 10 degrees below ideal, and you will miss the aromas and more subtle nuances upon tasting. Keeping in mind that it will warm up in the glass, pour it below ideal in smaller portions, and swirl to your heart’s content. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc is best at about 45-50 degrees.
• For Champagne, keep it well chilled. Bubbles and crisp acidity are essential to the enjoyment of sparkling wine, and cold temperatures maintain both in fine form. 40-45 degrees, max. Just out of the fridge and into a tulip should be fine!

Of course, I am looking for ways to keep a decanted bottle of wine at the right temperature. I hope to one day invent the right service tray that is suitable for displaying any glass decanter on the table and still maintains the wine at the best temperature.

For now, if you do want to go to the obsessive trouble of keeping your bottle at the right serving temperature, the best thing to get is a bottle sleeve from ScrewPull. Better yet, ask for one for Christmas!

Get these temps right, and you’ll enjoy your daily drinkers even more, I guarantee it!

Next - decanting and aeration. You think they’re the same thing? HAhahahaha!
You are NOT a wine nut!

How to Drink Better Wine - Even If You Don’t Drink Different Wine! Part 1 - Glasses

Thu, 27 May 2010 12:15:28 -0700

Part 1 - Glasses. Where you will discover my personality disorder.

When it comes to the ultra-serious and incredibly important topic of enjoying wine, paying attention to details will make a difference. This is as true at professional blind tastings as it is in a restaurant, or on a Saturday at home with friends.

But first, I am ready to admit a personality disorder to you.

I am Miguel Lecuona. And I am a wine nut.
There.

Let me state that I am surprised at how much I have to say about this. I know, you’re surprised that I’m surprised. But a recent party has left me examining my own behavior in these matters, and it’s time to confess.

Consider the evidence of my disorder:
• I found myself offering unsolicited advice to a perfectly charming hostess about cleaning glassware. In her own home.
• I gifted a box of glasses to friends. Not because they wanted them, but to make sure they had a good flute for a bottle of champagne I brought for the toast.
• I rejected the sincerely proffered use of a colored, faceted piece of cocktail stemware for red wine. I just couldn’t do it.
• I reflexively examined the storage conditions of the in-laws of this wonderful hostess and exclaimed my alarm at finding the 2000 Chateau Palmer stored at the top of the open-air wood rack. I committed the sin of not moving the bottle, out of deferential respect not to the wine but to the property rights of the owner.
• Finally, I refused to let the happy couple open a gifted bottle of wine because it was too young, this was not the right time, and under the right conditions. It happened to be a bottle of 2005 Chateau Margaux. It was handed to the couple from a sheepish but well-meaning friend like someone would press a bottle of Corona into your hand. My friend, who is not a collector, looked at the wine, not realizing he was holding a $1,000 treasure, then looked at me. After picking up my jaw from the floor, I immediately stepped forward, cradled the bottle, removed it from further harm, repairing it into a cooler with a small ice pack that I brought myself to keep the wine I brought for drinking at the right temperature.

And this is all in one night!

Needless to say, as Diane Keaton said to Al Pacino, “THIS MUST ALL END!”

No, not my interfering personality disorder. Look, if there are this many unforced wine errors in a single night -- in my presence! -- I can only imagine the horrors unfolding in homes all around the world. Luckily, you know me, and with this newfound strength borne of my confession, you may now receive the benefit of my ridiculousness about these things.

We will cover this in 5 Parts, OK?

Fine wine is made for pleasure (setting aside mass produced for a moment, we can dream) by people who choose to do this for a living. And who believe, sometimes naively, that you care as deeply as they do about what you are about to open. I can tell you with perfect certainty that the stakes of your judgment on their wine are very high. And this goes all the way to Chateau Margaux itself! Before I was the amazing force in wine that I am now, I wrote directly to Margaux for advice about their wine for Christmas dinner. I received a prompt, courteous reply directly from Paul Pontallier himself. It was like hearing from Mr. Vuitton himself about which purse to carry to the opera. I conclude from this simple exchange that indeed, this is personal!

Just getting a bottle of wine to your table entails a huge chain of events, including acts of Congress and compliance with international laws for distributing alcohol. Beyond that wonderful legal environment (see HR 5034 for a terribl, involving hundreds of people you will never meet, in lands you may one day visit. From vineyards planted decades before, to painstaking care, treatment and feeding, to catastrophic weather events, finally to harvest, then a myriad of decisions in the wine cellar, followed by aging, storage, bottling. Then comes distribution -- selling, stacking, shipping, re-shipping, and final storage for sale to you, at the retailer, or online. If your precious bottles have run that gauntlet and arrived intact on your table, it's already an amazing accomplishment!

So far your personal involvement has been financial (and perhaps emotional, but that's another story!). Now, it's up to you to finish the job right. Are you up to the task? After seeing how it's done - right and wrong - many times, I come before you with a five tips to make every bottle as enjoyable as possible.

1. Glasses
Ever poured a fresh bottle of champagne only to see it sit limp in the glass? Where are the bubbles? Champagne without bubbles is like an eagle without wings. The Cowboys without Aikman. Cubans without music. My wife without Jimmy Choos? (Hi love!)

Don’t blame the champagne. Fire the dish washer. Hey, that was my first job!

The first tip: Do not wash your glasses with soap, and don't dry them with paper towels. Soap leaves a coat on the glass, can cause champagne to go flat, and impart a chemical aftertaste, particularly to older red and more delicate white wines. Wet paper is detected in aromas as a fault similar to a corked bottle. We had some friends over and, after handing out glasses for a dessert wine, one of them put her nose into the empty glass and said, “this smells like just a little bit of wet cardboard.” She was French. But she was right! And at pro tastings, the first thing you’re supposed to do is smell the empty glass. If you detect anything, swap it out. The embarrassed sommelier will be suitably impressed and not question you!

Solution: Just use hot water and maybe a soft foamy brush. Dry them on a rack, or with a couple of micro-fiber towels. Target has great micro-fiber cloths in the auto parts section, and for a lot less than those at Williams Sonoma!

Which glass do I use? A good glass that is every day friendly is the Schott-Zweisel Tritan Forte for red wine (about $60 for 6 on Amazon.com). It is quite durable, has a thin rim, and is a great shape for most red or white wines. You can use the same glass for most wines. And, for special bottles (or keeping track of two different red wines on the same table), you can go with glasses intended for specific wines  (ie, round for Pinot, tall for Cabernet). Riedel stems are more expensive, and more breakable, but they are faultless.

You wine is tasting better already. And I am feeling more relieved!

Next: Temperature, wherein you learn what my favorite gifts are from my wife!

Marketing Rules for Elite Wines. And, meet Oliver Styles.

Wed, 26 May 2010 13:14:14 -0700

I’ve wanted to cover this topic for a while, and with the focus on the top Bordeaux wines in Hong Kong this week for the 2009 Vintage, and a nice article by wine writer Mr. Oliver Styles, this is the right launch point.
I met Oliver last year during VinExpo, where we shared a table at Chateau Kirwan (that’s him on the right, glasses in profile, sorry I can’t do better!) Last June he was in his last week at Decanter.com, running the internet site in the UK. Now he’s on his own, at Wine-Life.co.uk. He continues as a writer and also makes wine in Spain. You have to admire the effort, for sure. Anyway, I wanted to recognize his blog here. He provides running commentary on the news in the business, and follows many of the wine discussion boards. I have commented on a few of his stories, and now I think I will put out a running dialogue with him, because I enjoy his perspective.

We also have a standing bet on the World Cup. June 12, 2010 features the UK vs USA. I forget our stakes, I think it must involve South African wines... he will no doubt remind me of our commitment!

Last month, Oliver wrote a piece on his blog called, Why Great Wines Don’t Enter Wine Competitions. Since he worked for Decanter, a mag that proffers a great number of “best wine” medallions and awards, his perspective is valuable. He puts the nut of the decision by great wine makers even entering such competitions thusly:  
“there is a chance that the tasters might have a bad day; that the wine might not travel well; that the tasters won’t appreciate the nuances of the wine, etc. It is well understood that great wines can only lose by entering such competitions... it is a sobering thought that the refusal of the top wines to enter wine competitions illustrates just how slight a margin there is between the great and the good. Often, that margin is as thick as their label.”

On a purely objective level, Oliver’s conclusion bears out. And much of interesting life is competition, the head-to-head match, seeing if the underdog can prevail against his betters (USA! USA!). But being a Marketing Guy who spent many years working to make sure the label did in fact add value to the product inside, I would build on Oliver’s assertion this way:

For the world’s elite wine brands, Wine is not a competitive sport. It’s a blood sport.

For the elite wines of the world, here are the keys to victory:
1. Never fight on a battle field where you can lose. Oliver’s basic premise. You don’t enter competitions, you don’t send your bottles out unaccompanied, for tastings. You don’t move down a weight class. And you don’t do blind comparisons. Period.
2. Play on your home court. Put your history, your winery, your vineyards, and the glory of your investment to work so that you’re already winning before the wine is ever poured.
1. Innovate or die. Make no mistake, what’s in the bottle had better be the best it can possibly be, year in and year out. When you are commanding prices in the $100 to $1,000 range, there is no such thing as an off vintage. That’s why Cos d’Estournel reinvented itself over 10 years, culminating in arguably the biggest, and most visible, of all Bordeaux wines in 2009.
2. Less is More. Yes, rather than greater market share through volume, the opposite rule applies. Cut production, increase price and drive the market based on scarcity and distribution. In wine, this generally has the positive effect of improving quality of the great wine, and producing a second-rank wine that can serve as the entry to the brand, or ensure distribution loyalty.
3. All the World’s a Stage. Especially China. When you can’t bring them to your chateaux, go see the millionaires of the world on their home turf. Follow the money and make sure you are on the ground. Hong Kong is the new wine capital of the world, driven by their zero-tax policy a few years ago. Here, the biggest wine collections are auctioned to the highest bidder, Bordeaux executes the entire VinExpo show. And the First Growths won’t price their wines until they’ve been tasted in Hong Kong!
4. When in doubt, raise your price. Finally, don’t make it easier for more people to come to your brand. You aren’t in the business of “gaining trial and acceptance”. You are striving for Coveted. The trophy to be earned, displayed. A wine found only on the elite wine lists of the world. You bring prestige to the restaurant, and to the table. Better yet, stay off the published lists, but on the comp list of the Handlers in Vegas and Macau.
With these rules, who has time for blind taste tests and gold medal magazine awards?

Finally, as a wine lover and a modest collector, I say this: seeking, buying, and holding a few spectacular bottles to one day find the right moment to serve them is a very gratifying experience. No, not just for what they are intrinsically, as Oliver has proven in his note. But rather, for the possibility they embody — a perfect pairing, a wedding toast, a special anniversary, the opportunity to get a special meeting or close a business deal, or the simple honor you give to those you share the bottle with. This is part of what drives Lafite sales in China. It shows your own power that you can offer it, and it shows the respect you have for those you think highly enough of to share it.

And if it’s not as good this year as Lynch Bages? Or if it disappoints? Or you fail to prepare it fully, or open it too soon, or too late, or your glass smells of cardboard because you failed to use the micro-cloth instead of the paper towel this once? Well, that’s life! Anticipation is a very fulfilling emotion for an optimistic future. And we all know that in life, as in wine, reality doesn’t always square with the build-up. Thus, we can’t be surprised that labels and brands matter, and that people pay for them even if they can be proven inferior to cheaper substitutes.

Oliver, when it comes time for you to give your daughter away to her betrothed, I will be shocked if you are raising your glass toasting the good fortune of the new family with a champagne that requires you to say, “Yes but in blind tasting these gold medallions say it’s as good as Krug”.

You probably have The Collection vintage already picked out for the happy occasion. And that’s entirely appropriate. Cheers! Miguel

Young Nubians in Philly

Tue, 25 May 2010 14:32:35 -0700

Jack Cunicelli, owner of the very cool 320 Market Cafe in Swarthmore, invited us to feed the goats at Yellow Springs Farm. Sounds like a fine Sunday afternoon check-in! We met Jack last year while teaching a Pauillac class at the Wine School of Philadelphia. Given his passionate education to master all things cheese, we look forward to great things in and out of his neighborhood market -- the sort of corner store you would hope to find in your own town -- fresh produce, a great deli, and one of the best local and artisanal cheese selections in the area. His store merits a profile and a wine tasting, actually!

So much is happening with local foods these days, and nothing is hotter than great cheeses from local farms. Chevre is one of the more challenging wine-cheese pairings as these things go, but this visit solved the problem for me. The 10 acre farm is cute as can be, including a native plant nursery and even a humble vineyard. “We want the grapes for cheese and flavors rather than wine”, said owner Catherine Renzi. When we asked to feed the goats, she pointed to a large honeysuckle vine and suggested that would be a welcome sight for the goats, including young nubians from this Spring.

And which wine would be a great match for this rich young chevre? I would suggest Viognier. With its beautiful aromatic profile that includes honeysuckle, you can hardly do better. And to keep things very local, try one from Pennsylvania, some dare say that PA does a pretty fair Viognier, as does Virginia! I can recommend another option not on the normal lists. I happened to taste one from Greece over the weekend, 2008 Gerovassiliou Viognier, and it was shockingly good. That tasting was a revelation, and will merit a story here very soon. Viognier can be a finicky wine, sometimes flabby and unremarkable, so look for one that leaps out of the glass with floral aromas and you’ll be on the right track. Seek out Guigal Condrieu (France), Ojai Vineyards (CA) or something else from California’s Central Coast that should be on the shelf.

Yellow Springs Farm is on the web, linked here.