What must the temperature be in my stocking-cellar?
Wine does not expose to the heat,
this is a certainty but does not even more expose to
the temperature differences. A perfect stocking-cellar
is kept at 12°, more or less one degree. But in
any case, it is better to have a cellar at 15° all
the time rather than variation of temperatures of 2
or 3 degrees everyday. A warm stocking-cellar makes
the wine get old early, a stocking-cellar where the
temperature varies in a short time, kills the wine.
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What is a good stocking-cellar?
Of course the temperature of the cellar is the
most important element. But it is not the only one.
We also have to pay attention to the light, the vibrations,
the hygrometry and to the strange scents. Wine preserves
well itself in the dark, without any sorts of vibrations
and to a sufficient humidity (at least 65 %) so that
corks do not dry. As for scents, one has to be careful
not to put fruit, vegetables, cardbord-boxes into the
cellar and generally speaking evrything tending to mould
or to rot.
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How can we determine the age of the wine?
The ageing alters the wine colour
and the colour concentration. In the red wines, the
colour is given by the anthocyans, colored matter placed
in the skin grapes extracted by alcohol during the fermentation.
In ageing, the more or less bluish of the red colour
in the young wine gets some ochre tints. It is then
high time to drink it.
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What is the peak of the wine?
It depends on evryone’s
taste. One can like young wines or old wines without
being right or wrong.
However there is a lifetime, that lasts 8 or 10 years
for the Great Vintages, two or three times less for
the small vintages, in which the wine has lost its signs
of youth without having declined. It is at its peak.
However depending on their age and on their culture,
wine tasters do not always place the peak in the same
way!
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Why are there second wines?
The second wines are made with
what could reduce the harmony of the Grand Cru (that
is the way we call the first wine) or to make a blending
far from the Chateau style. It doesn’t mean that
we will put bad wines. The second wine is generally
composed of the youngest wines or of the overrepresented
grape varieties in comparison with the ideal blending.
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What is the ideal temperature to serve the wine?
The expression “to bring
wine to room”is linked to a time when rooms were
not warmed up. Actually, wines do not expose to thermal
shock. It was a matter of bringing a level of temperature
to the wine from the cellar to the dining room, the
former always fresh despite the huge chimeneys. Nowadays,
we find back the consumption temperatures that we liked
formerly : 16 to 18°for the red wines.
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When can we drink the sweet wines?
They have neither more alcohol
nor fewer acids (sometimes even more) than other wines
but they contain a lot of sugar. That is natural sugar
of course, coming from the grape. They can be drunk
for the aperitive or dessert but there is an old Sunday
tradition in the Bordelais of the Chicken-macaroni-Sauternes
which deserves the attention of the gourmets.
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What is called “vividness”in a white wine?
This is the acid savour that
grants a feeling of freshness. Indeed the white wine
balance
is due to the acidity on a one hand and on the
other hand to the perception of rich/alcohol.
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