ask a sommelier
I was thinking of cellaring Champagne and was wondering if there were any special considerations in comparison to still wine .
— Gail Cormier
Dear Gail ,
Ah , Champagne — nectar of the gods . I personally have never met a bottle of champagne that wasn ’ t screaming “ drink me please .” That said , let me note how impressed I am by your willpower in wanting to cellar these lovely wines .
The biggest consideration in cellaring Champagne is having bottles that should be cellared . The truth is , much of the Champagne produced is made to drink as soon as it is released to the marketplace , and it really requires no cellaring . It is important to note that lighter-style non-vintage Champagne and most non-Champagne bubblies ( bubbles from other parts of the world ) will not benefit from aging at all and are probably best drunk up within a year or two of purchase .
Some grower Champagnes , vintage Champagne , and the luxury Cuvées can really benefit from careful cellaring , however . In time , they will evolve an almost ethereal richness and complexity . Keep in mind that the trade-off may be some loss of carbonation over extended time . As with still wines , you want to lay them down in a cool , dark area that has little , if any , temperature fluctuation .
I will keep my fingers crossed for you in hopes that your willpower remains better than mine .
— Saralyn Mehta
Is it okay to store wine bottles with screw-tops upright ? — Diane Nelson
Dear Diane ,
When it comes to storage , whether the wine us under screw-top or cork , give your wine the mushroom treatment : cool , dark , relatively humid and quiet .
With various closures , we can ask the same general storage question : how can the seal fail ? For cork , the seal can fail if it dries out , so storing the wine on its side is good . For screw-top , the seal can fail by trauma , such as bumping up against another object , or by pressure , which might occur if the wine is stored upside down or even on its side for long periods of time . With that in mind , I would recommend that screwtop bottles be stored heads up . And remember the mushroom treatment !
— Sylvia Jansen
Within the Prädikat system , apparently , German wines can become “ declassified .” For example , they are legally Auslese but on the bottle it says Spatlese . This happens in especially warm years . Is there any way to easily tell if a wine is declassified or not ?
— James Gosselin
Dear James ,
Top quality ( Prädikat ) German wines are classified by the measured sugar concentration of the grapes at harvest . The lowest Prädikat level , Kabinett , gives the lightest wines ; Spätlese gives classic styles ; and Auslese wines are concentrated and rich . In warm vintages , naturally higher sugar levels may preclude production of lighter wines and producers may use sweeter , riper juice to meet market demand for lighter categories .
I asked Rainer Lingenfelder , owner / winemaker of Lingenfelder Estate in the Pfalz region of Germany , if it ’ s easy to spot a “ declassified ” wine . The answer is complex . If all German wines were fermented dry , then the alcohol level of the wine would indirectly indicate the starting sugar concentration and , by comparison to published
Prädikat sugarlevel tables , one would know the wine ’ s true category .
But many German wines contain residual sugar ( i . e ., grape sugars not converted into alcohol ) and the relationship between alcohol and starting sugar concentration is no longer valid . Therefore , the short answer to your question is no , there is no easy way to tell ; you would have to ask the producer directly if a wine was “ declassified .”
— Gary Hewitt
If you have questions for any of our Sommeliers , please submit them to www . banvilleandjones . com / cellar . apsx
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