For the conclusion of our collective experiment on storage conditions, I
recruited several non-winegeek friends and my ever-suffering wife Jean
to do a comparative tasting of two different robust reds. The first
wine was the 2005 Perrin Reserve Cotes du Rhone in a screwcapped bottle;
the other wine was the 2005 Torres "Sangre de Toro" in a cork-finished
bottle. Both wines are fairly robust reds and, to reiterate, one bottle
of each was stored in our passively cooled cellar 45-60°F annual
excursions, <2°F daily excursions) while a second bottle of each was
stored in a dressing room on the second floor of our house (60-80°F
annual, 5-10°F daily). All wines were bagged and served double blind to
avoid prejudice.

Perrin Reserve
bottle #1 - silky texture, mature-seeming (group comments: lighter,
smoother)
bottle #2 - rough seeming, more robust (group comments: sharper,
stronger, fruitier, darker, rougher)

bottle#1 came from the cellar; bottle#2 came from the dressing room

Sangre de Toro
bottle#1 - slightly corked (!!), jammy, smooth tannins (group comments:
lighter, smoother, smells less soapy?)
bottle#2 - very similar to first (group comments: same, slightly stronger)

bottle#1 came from the cellar; bottle#2 came from the dressing room

Overall, everyone in the group agreed that there was a distinct
difference between the two bottles of the Perrin Reserve, but almost all
felt that the two bottles of the Sangre de Toro were very similar (Jean
and I both agreed that there was low-level cork taint). Surprisingly, I
was sure that bottle#1 of the Perrin was the one from the dressing room,
as it seems more evolved than the other bottle to me. Go figger! Most
of the group preferred the cellared bottle of Perrin Reserve, though, so
the wisdom of the crowd knew the cellared version. Even despite the
cork taint in the Sangre de Toro, no one found much of a difference
between the two bottles. Since it was a heavier-bodied, more robust
wine than the Perrin Reserve, it may have been less vulnerable to
less-than-ideal storage. Or perhaps, despite my reasoning two years
ago, cork-finished bottles are less vulnerable to temperature swings
than screwcapped? As with the other experiments in this series, no hard
conclusions apart from the fact that it does seem to make a difference
in many cases how the bottles were stored.

Mark Lipton
Empirical Scientist-at-large
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.cwdjr.net

Thanks Mark.
I think it will take a few decades of testing to come to a conclusion

Lew

"Lew/Silat" > skrev i melding
...
> Thanks Mark.
> I think it will take a few decades of testing to come to a conclusion
>
> Lew
And then there is the question of bottle variation... A conclusive test may
have to involve cases of different wines.

Over the years I've come to the conclusion that a low storage temperature
may not be all that important...? We may have to test bottles stored at 40,
50, 60, 70 and even 80F not to speak of fluctuating temperatures

Anders

One of the best bottles of Bordeaux I've ever had was an $8 Cote de
Borg that I left in my 80 degree car for a few hours. Apparently that
sped up just the right chemical reactions without destroying the wine.

Alas, it's not a phenomenon I've ever repeated.

Shaun Eli
www.BrainChampagne.com