How to collect wine

Research shows most Americans drink wine within a few days of purchase, but there are those who collect bottles of wine with an eye toward even better enjoyment in the future. For wine is much like you or me: It ages.

Good wines start out with a youthful energy that can almost be overpowering. Flavors are often bold, without nuance. You might taste a lot of tannin -- an astringent, bitter sensation (like swigging a mouthful of strong black tea). But tannins are necessary because they provide the "bones" on which the wine can grow to a nuanced maturity when it will be at the peak of flavor, aroma, substance. This is when you realize that wine is worth every dollar you spent on it. Unfortunately, wines grow old and, just like us, they eventually die. Old wines are capable of winning respect even past their prime because there's often a special quality to them. It never hurts to open an old bottle and taste to see if, miracle of miracles, it's still good. Just keep a younger bottle handy in case the oldster is DOA.

Watching and tasting a wine go through its life cycle is one of the joys of wine collecting. I recommend you get a notepad or book to write down your notes as you taste a wine through the years.1. Have the proper storage -- a cool, dark place away from light, heat or sun. A kitchen is not the place for storage. If you're thinking basement, make sure the space isn't too wet (the paper labels can rot off). Living in an apartment? No problem. I use the bottom shelves of my linen closet. If you're really serious about collecting, consider buying a wine refrigerator or setting up a wine "room" with its own climate control system.

2. Collect only what you want to drink. There's no use keeping wines you don't like simply because they may have a certain reputation. And when it comes to buying, be adventurous: Try wines you've never had before. If you like 'em, buy 'em.

3. Consider different collecting strategies. Some people just want first-growth Bordeaux. Others may want a vertical of one winery, meaning they have wine from consecutive years. Some may even collect based on label art -- all flowers, all animals, whatever.

4. Drink your wine when it's ready. Too many people let bottles sit and sit and sit until they die of old age. Some wines can age for decades, wines like expensive reds from Bordeaux and California, Sauternes and even some Burgundian whites. What wines don't age? Cheap wines, wines meant to be drunk fresh and young. Consult a wine guide or your merchant about aging -- and remember aging is also affected by your storage conditions. If you don't have an ideal space, take my linen closet, factor in fewer storage years.

5. If you are buying wines, especially expensive wines on the auction market, make sure you verify the prior ownership and storage conditions if you can. If you buy a bottle at the church auction -- a bottle kept in Aunt Minnie's sideboard for 40 years -- you may be disappointed (especially if it's a straw-wrapped bottle of $4 Chianti!).

6. Keep a perspective on how much you're buying and how much you drink. Some collectors have so much wine that they never get around to drinking all their wines in peak condition. You know some pricey wines are going to rot right now on some collector's shelf. That's a shame.

Read Full Entry

Wine company in receivership

Another Marlborough wine company is in receivership and one unsecured creditor has predicted it will be only a month before his company suffers the same fate. Otuwhero Estate Wines, based in the Awatere Valley, was put into the management of Deloitte partner Grant Jarrold, of Christchurch, on Monday.

Mr Jarrold said he was still assessing options for the company. Otuwhero operations director Michael Davison, of Clifford Bay near Blenheim, would not comment. Wade Thompson, of WJ Contracting, said Otuwhero owed him $100,000 for work on the vineyard.

His company has managed the 200-hectare Otuwhero vineyard under contract for six years, he said. That included paying staff wages and contracting pruners for the 170ha planted in sauvignon blanc. Mr Thompson said he cancelled the management contract after payments for the pruning work turned to a trickle and then stopped completely about two months ago.

He pulled out the pruners half-way through work on the vineyard until the payments were made, but no money had been forthcoming. He also had not been paid for several months, he said. He could not pay Thornhill Horticultural Contracting, which he had hired to do the pruning, and it was likely his own company, WJ Contracting, would end up going out of business, he said.

Thornhill South Island manager Ian Hunter said he was upset the Otuwhero directors would walk away leaving them having to work to recoup debts. But that was the way of business when companies failed, he said.

Mr Thompson and Thornhill Contracting had kept a good relationship throughout, he said.

Mr Thompson said Otuwhero's operations director, Mr Davison, was managing the vineyard under the receivers, who were tendering for a new contractor to finish the pruning.

"What makes me so angry now, one of the directors has gone and employed other staff to get the pruning finished, yet they are not paying for the last lot of pruning that was done," Mr Thompson said.

He did not hold much hope for getting any money from the receivership, he said.

"They've got us over a barrel.

"We're unsecured creditors. We're the last ones to get anything out of it."

Gravitas, Awatere Vineyard Estates and Cape Campbell Wines have this year all been put under management with unsecured debts totalling almost $1.9 million.

Read Full Entry

Don't let fall put white wine on the shelf

One of the many, many old wives tales about wine is that for some reason white wines take a back seat to reds when fall arrives. Maybe it has something to do with that “no white pants after Labour Day” mantra people way more fashionable than me mumble to themselves this time of year.

While a slight chill in the air and the rustic aromas of leaves dying may suggest a red wine vibe, I’m going on record saying that every day is a good day to drink white. The weight of an oaky chardonnay certainly works with all four seasons, but let me also push the versatility of German riesling.

Soft, slightly sweet (in a juicy apple fruit sense) and undeniably gulpable the Schmitt Söhne 2009 Relax Riesling ($11.95 - $13.13) is a, well, relaxing wine perfect for fall. Try matching it with a Thai or spicy Szechuan dish.

Prices reflect the range across the country. Some products may not be available in all provinces. Peter Rockwell is the everyman’s wine writer, working in the liquor industry for more than 25 years and traveling the globe looking for something to fill his glass and put into words.

Read Full Entry

Wine & Dine Wisconsin offers fine weekend for foodies

It's back, it's better and it's ready to feed your appetite for fine food and drink. Presented by Southwest Airlines, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's second annual Wine & Dine Wisconsin is bigger (130,000 square feet - 40% larger); longer (hours have been extended to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday) and features a new Critic's Choice area, where some of the restaurants on dining critic Carol Deptolla's Top 30 list will offer samples.

Featured Critic's Choice restaurants include Lake Park Bistro, Dream Dance Steak, Bacchus, Sanford, Eddie Martini's, Maxie's Southern Comfort and Umami Moto. The Critic's Choice area is separately ticketed, and tickets must be purchased online.

Visitors can sample food and drink from more than 100 exhibitors. Other features: more than 40 prominent chefs and libations experts on four stages; the Stella Artois beer garden; and a second "Cheese Island."

Also new this year are 11 culinary and beverage seminars, which are ticketed separately at $5 each.

Featured chefs include Carlos DeLeon of Harbor House, the new Bartolotta restaurant on the lakefront; Joe Muench of Maxie's Southern Comfort; Alamelu Vairavan, host of MPTV's "Healthful Indian Flavors," Thi Cao of Café Calatrava; Jason Gorman of Dream Dance Steak; Tom Schultz of Smyth at the Iron Horse; Robert Ash of the Pfister Hotel; and Richard Palm and Ulrich Kobersteinof the American Club.

Tickets are $49 at the door. You can save $10 if you buy advance tickets, available through Wednesday. A weekend pass for both days is $59 in advance, and $69 at the door. Tickets to Wine & Dine Wisconsin, Critic's Choice and the seminars are limited. A portion of proceeds from Wine & Dine Wisconsin benefit Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.

Read Full Entry

BORED TO DEATH Wine Tasting Event

Who is Jonathan Ames? Well, he’s an alcoholic, a writer, and self proclaimed private detective. I’m speaking of course of the character played by Jason Schwartzman in the HBO series BORED TO DEATH. Not to be confused with the writer of the series, Jonathan Ames. For those of you that watch the show, you’ll know that Jonathan has a passion for white wine. So, I found it fitting that HBO hosted a wine detective event to kick off the premiere of Bored to Death season 2.

The challenge: to correctly guess the varietal of 8 glasses of white wine. Now, I know way more about the show than I do about white wine so I put my detective skills to use and actually didn’t do too bad. For example, if the clue was that it was a Spanish wine, I marked the option with the most Spanish sounding name – maybe I should become a private detective as well? For those of you not familiar with the show, Bored to Death is about a writer Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman), Ray Hueston (Zach Galifianakis) a comic book illustrator and Jonathan’s friend, and George Christopher (Ted Danson) who plays Jonathan’s editor and friend. It’s based off the graphic novel by Jonathan Ames called “The Alcoholic”. In Season 1 Jonathan suffers a bad breakup, is bored with writing and turns to white wine and detective work to amuse himself. Season 2 begins this Sunday September 26th at 10 PM on HBO.

Read Full Entry