RSS11/05/08 Wine Q&A
for the Yakima Herald-Republic
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Q. As you taste a wine, what criteria do you use (tannins, etc.) to decide that this particular tasting would improve with cellar time?
A. Most of the wines I taste are quite young, as market forces and the rush to be the first to market the newest vintage tends to hurry up release dates. But I've found that it is not that difficult to get a fairly good idea of how a wine will age.
In general what I look for in a young wine is aromatic complexity, balance in the mouth, no excessive alcohol, oak or tannin, and the ability to reveal more and more layers as it breathes open.
A good way to guesstimate its future prospects is to decant it and taste it over the course of several hours. Sometimes, if I think a wine is really wrapped up tight, I taste it a few times, then put the cork back in the bottle, and simply let it breathe in the bottle overnight. If it has improved the next day, it generally means that it will likely improve with more cellar time.
* Paul Gregutt can be reached at wine@seattletimes.com.
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