Drink
Wines From and For the Cellar
By John Szabo, M.S.
The idea for this piece came, as most good ones do, over a glass of interesting, clearly mature wine at Langdon Hall one recent afternoon. Savvy sommelier Sylvain Brissonnet has many treasures in his cellar that has grown from about 200 bottles to over 10,000 in the seven years he has been at this world class Country House & Spa. Guests are attracted from around the world today not just to relax with a mudpack, but also to sample rare bottles of fine wine. The wine in our glasses was a surprise 2000 vintage Syrah from Peninsula Ridge, a VQA wine and one of the dozens that Sylvain lists as a champion of the local wine industry.
Zoltan Szabo and I, on sight to deliver our Ontario wine staff training seminar, were suitably impressed by the way this seven year-old wine had aged, both having tasted it many years ago on release. We know that Ontario produces world-class young wines, but in order to be truly world-class the wines must have some longevity. So I thought it would be useful to take a look at just what it takes for a wine to age (and improve, not just get old) and offer a few examples of local wines that have stood the test of time, proving that Ontario VQA wines can also age.
This is not just a tasting exercise, however, as there are also clear benefits for operators. Most restaurateurs are looking for quick turn inventory, not long-term commitment, and building a wine cellar (including wines purchased that are kept off the list until ready) requires time, space, and money, all of which are in short supply in most establishments, not to mention the knowledge about what to buy. So the opportunities for diners to even experience older wines outside of private homes are few and far between. Offering a few of these rare selections on your list can add a little something out of the ordinary and generate a bit of a buzz, as Langdon Hall has proved.
So what kind of wines are worth ageing? The majority of wine producers read statistics and evaluate their markets, so they know that their wine will last about as long in your cellar as a snowball in hell. There is thus a great deal of incentive to craft softer, more approachable, early maturing wines to satisfy this market. As a result, I would estimate without exaggeration that today about 95 percent of all red wines, and closer to 99 percent of all whites are best consumed within their first year, maybe two for a real stretch. They don't get any better.
Of course, it depends on what you mean by "better". As wines age they lose their vibrant, fresh fruity flavours and head into deeper, darker places. Pale whites turn to golden-amber; deep purple reds turn to pale garnet-brown. Fresh lemon fades into candied lemon zest, eventually coming to rest in caramelized crème br?lée. For red wines, strawberry turns to strawberry compote and then into strawberry rhubarb pie; plum into prune, grape into raisin, roses and violets into potpourri. Some say they are more "complex", others that they past their prime. Which is better?
Culturally, consumers have different preferences, whether it is music, art, food or wine, indeed anything for which personal taste is a factor. Personally, I prefer a wine to still have some echo of the fruit from which it was made, alongside some of the flavours that develop through ageing, that is, not "over the hill". For the majority of the white wines that I drink, the younger and fruitier the better. Yet occasionally, when you serve a wine at just the right moment, when some, but not all, of the fruit has shifted into more terrestrial, earthy flavours, the experience is memorable, and customers like that. For the rest, the most important thing to ask yourself is: what does this wine not have now that it is likely to acquire over time in the cellar?
Miracles don't occur in the bottle. A wine with low flavour intensity and little structure will only become a wine with low intensity, oxidized flavours after a period of aging. Red wines generally fare a little better than dry whites since they contain tannin, the great anti-oxidant that also gives red wine some of its health benefits.
Over time, aggressive, astringent tannins in reds bind together and drop out of the wine as sediment, leaving behind a smoother, silkier texture. But eventually, the inexorable effects of oxygen, slowly dissolved in wine over time, will destroy these too.
There are essentially four potential preservatives in wine: alcohol, acid, dry extract (tannin) and sugar. All of these components have the ability to slow down the effects of oxidation. So in order to reasonably expect a wine to improve over time, it must have an abundance of at least three out of four of these essential components. For example, while most dry whites may have high acidity, they have no tannin or sugar and only moderate alcohol. Not the stuffing to go the distance. Rieslings are an exception; even though light-bodied and more or less dry, their typically electrifying acidity preserves them for many years. Wood aged whites also fare better, as they have been stabilized by controlled oxidation in the barrel.
Most commercial reds may have high alcohol, but very little tannin and acidity and negligible amounts of sugar. Again, not enough to confer age-worthiness. The appeal of these wines is their pleasant fresh, fruity flavours; they have little to offer once the fruit has flown south. Sell these young.
On the other hand, the great sweet wines of the world such as Icewine, Tokaji, Sauternes and other nobly rotten wines have abundant residual sugar, high acidity and above average alcohol and extract, more than enough to expect some longevity. Full-bodied red wines made from thick-skinned, tannic varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, or Nebbiolo have more than enough tannin, alcohol and acidity to inspire confidence over long-term cellaring. Think top quality Ontario Meritage, Bordeaux, Napa Valley Cabernets, Barolo and Barbaresco and Hermitage and C?te R?tie from the Northern Rh?ne in France. Again, our own Baco Noir is an exception: very low tannin is balanced by high acidity, making it generally very age-able.
The most age-worthy of all wines are those in the "fortified" category: wines to which alcohol has been added during the winemaking process. Examples of this type of wine include port, sherry, Marsala and the granddaddy of them all, Madeira.
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