The words around wine

An old wine is better than a young wine is a myth

The historian in me loves to track down and recount arcane tales of wine and the wine world, and here are a few of my favourites:
 
Old wine in new bottles: The term is widely used by journalists disparaging the trotting out of ‘old’ (and imputed as outdated) policies or practices by politicians or administrations. In actual fact this referred to a restaurant — and therein lies a tale that’s over a hundred years old.
 
In the 1860s, vineyards in France (and parts of Europe) were devastated by phylloxera, a microscopic louse that was accidentally imported from America (where the vines were resistant to this affliction). While a solution was found by the mid-1870, new vineyards take time to develop. In the interim, the grape crop in France decreased by some 40 per cent and there just wasn’t enough good new wine available.
 
Hence, some establishments started resorting to dubious means to continue catering to demand: trying to pass off bad old wine as good new wine by putting it into a new bottle.
 

An interesting corollary to this is a practice that was started by the better hostelries and which continues to this day: the wait staff would bring the unopened wine bottle to the table and show the label to the host; thereafter, he would open the bottle in the host’s presence, offer him a sample of the wine to taste, and proceed to pour the wine to others at the table only after receiving approval.
 
An old wine is better than a young wine: That’s a myth. Most wines are meant to be consumed soon after production. White wines are best consumed within two to three years and most reds within three to five years.
 
Yes, a very small number of wines will keep for 10 to 20 years or more. These would have been in production for many years and have the provenance  to back their claim to fame and high prices. These include the best Bordeaux, Burgundies and Napa Valley reds, some Barolos and Barbarescos, and, of course, Penfolds Grange. Most wines capable of aging  are virtually undrinkable when young as they are designed to be long-lasting (with strong tannins and high acidity) and are rarely released before five years; 95 per cent of the wine produced worldwide is generally  ready to drink on bottling.
 
France makes the best wines: This myth was exploded by the ‘Judgement of Paris’ in 1976 when Steven Spurrier organised a blind tasting between the best Bordeaux and Napa Valley Cabs and the best white Burgundies and Napa Valley Chardonnays. The 11 tasters were all French, and only a single reporter (George Taber, for Time magazine).
 
When the tasting results were tabulated, it emerged that the wines from California had been adjudged at least equal to, if not better than, the French wines: Stag’s Leap Cab 1973 and Heintz Cellars Cab 1970 outscored French stalwarts like Chateau Mputon-Rothschild and Chateau Haut-Brion, while Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 1973 as the best white. There was uproar in the French press, with charges of bias and poor methodology flying thick. The situation was exacerbated by the coverage given to the event by the American media, which (naturally) blew the whole thing out of proportion.
 
Of course, France still makes the only ‘investment-grade’ wines — just go to the Liv-ex website to see the dominance of first growth Bordeaux.
 
Wines I’ve been drinking: The Bad Boy Bordeaux 2013 (Rs 4,303 in Bengaluru) is an interesting wine: a 95 per cent  Merlot, produced by ETS Thunevin, the original ‘garagiste’ or low-cost winemaker who was called the black sheep of Bordeaux by Robert Parker for the unconventional practice of making terrific wines using rented premises. This label is a cheeky acknowledgement of that moniker. The wine is complex, fruity, full-bodied and juicy. And yes, there’s also a Bad Girl (from the same producer) — and I’m waiting to get my hand on it/her!
 

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Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant