Everybody wants a wine to show well . . .

I want every wine that I open to have the opportunity to show well. Not realistic, I know. Some recent tasting experiences confirm how difficult this is for me. There will be a wine that I open and conclude has nothing appealing to offer me, but then I realize that I have just have not given it the right conditions to show what it has. There are a lot of variables: drinking window, aeration/decanting, temperature, served alone or with food, and if food, what is a good choice, etc. I believe that it is not pure chance, but there is certainly a portion of luck to it. Experience, informed judgement, and then an element of luck are perhaps the best one can do. Do you have a general approach for trying to get a good showing from a wine that you believe may have something good to show? Thanks.

I have found that a lot of times it is me and not the wine. If I have even the slightest bit of stuffiness wines seem muted and I really need something big and extracted to get any taste. Nuance, finesse for get about it! Knowing this, I select wines based one how I feel so I get the most out of them.

TW

I could not coax anything out of our starter wine, a 2011 Clos de la Roilette Griffe du Marquis out of magnum, had a lean, tart profile that I could not get to evolve. Moved on to a few other wines, including a 2010 Ridge Lytton and some Bordeaux. Same thing. Everything tasted tart. I am on antibiotics, wonder if that threw me off. Odd. And sucked.

The Macallan was good tho.

I opened a wine yesterday at a family lunch and I did not think It showed well. Those that drank it are not wine people so they had no clue, but the whole time I was thinking I should have brought something else. I tasted a little again last night and same thought, uninspiring. One glass left for tonight. It had improved greatly. Still not what I thought it should be.

I have had other wines not show well with wine people, they understand it so I TRY not to worry about it too much.

Thanks for the words, Paul. Actually my question is about wines that I open for me and my wife which is the majority of wines that I open. My “show well” phrase maybe is not the best way to phrase it. I want to give the wine a good chance to show its stuff.

Just (let it) breathe!

That’s my default solution and it’s a good one.

If it’s too young, let it breathe a lot.

If it should be at peak, but it’s sullen, decant it and give it an hour.

If it’s too old and seems too old, still let it breathe.

My own version of Audouze is to open the wine 24 hours ahead, taste an ounce for reference and let it sit. I think this improves almost all wines (of course I am peculiar in liking wines with age).

As somebody much smarter than me said “There are no great wines, only great bottles of wine”. IMO, breathing increases the odds.

Dan Kravitz

+1

17 Goodfellow Berserker Cuvée? That wine is super tight and not showing much right now.

I couldn’t agree more. So many times I have popped a wine and tasted it and wanted to pour it down the drain only to decant it or even to set it aside for a while only to discover that it blossomed into something enjoyable.

Air is one thing, but if you have something you care about and want to show well, this is best place to ask if anyone has had it lately and their treatment.

Could not agree more with what Dan had to say.

The only thing that I would add, and to me it’s quite important, is to keep your expectations about any specific wine in check and probably lower than what you normally would. I find that oftentimes the anticipation of opening a wine makes it ‘challenging’ for any wine to live up these potential lofty expectations . . .

Cheers!

Imho it is almost never wrong to open a bottle several (4-5) hours in advance. Taste a tiny amount to decide abour decanting time … from 1-2 hours to not at all, but only after open for a certain time. Otherwise wines can get astringent and tasting dry through decanting.
That even applies for Champagne …

This.

While I agree with Dan’s recommendation to let it breathe, a wine opened years before it is mature will not show as well as that same wine opened at maturity, no matter how much time you give it to breathe. A more reliable technique is to ask someone who’s tried it recently and whose palate I trust. Here and CellarTracker are great resources. Sometimes the best approach is to let it sit a few more years and open something else. If the consensus is that it needs hours to come around after opening, it’s good to know that before pulling the cork just before dinner is served.

+1 and edited for emphasis.

This site and CT are by far the most valuable tools in a wine lover’s arsenal. While you need to think about how to interpret crowd sourced opinions on CT, a whole bunch of recent “closed and tannic” notes should guide you to a different bottle.

Then there’s wine searcher which is really helpful for dealing with that pesky Christmas bonus burning a hole in your pocket [drinkers.gif].

No disagreements with the comments so far. There’s also the issue of bottle variability, especially with aged wine. Even if you give it air, etc, some wines just fail to launch.

Some people in my wine group do a quick coravin (maybe a half to ounce pour) the day before or morning of to see how the wines are drinking before taking it to a tasting. Saved a few corked or oxidized wines from being served, and may help judge how much air the wine needs. I haven’t used Coravin for that myself – if you’re at a restaurant, sometimes food comes out a bit slow, etc and people’s timing gets screwed up regardless. I prefer to just dump it in a decanter and follow for several hours. YMMV.

Very unfortunate indeed.

I’ve had a few bummers with multiple bottles open where wines comparatively fail to show well. Sometimes I don’t think it’s quality though, it’s adjusting for varying levels of acid, tannin, etc (although I think acid is dominant with this). For example, moving from a high-acid to a medium-acid wine may cause the medium-acid wine to fall flat.

I think one item needs to be included in your set of variables- Palate Fatigue.

For the last couple of weeks, I must admit, I’ve had plenty of rich foods, more wine than normal and sweets…plenty of sweets. It’s the one time of year, I don’t give a #@&! I’m fully convinced now that too much sugary foods can absolutely ruin a palate, for even several days. I’ve noticed that each year leading up to our big dinner (Xmas eve), where I select some real gems, I’m let down. The lineup was a home run with our guests but not me. It’s now fact, it was my problem, not the wine.

Being sick or being on antibiotics can be a major palate twister!

Sick = palate off
Antibiotics = palate off
Thanksgorging season - palate off

Plan accordingly.
Pace yourself.

Dan Kravitz

I’ve had this problem with some medications also. I’d assume it was the medication instead of the wines.