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Waiting is the hardest part - with wine

Some wines do strange things when you release them from the prison of their bottle.

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You’ve just taken a sip from a bottle of wine you just opened.

The wine tastes sharp, harsh, perhaps even a bit flat and tasteless.Is the wine bad?

Did you just waste $10 or $20?

Should you open another bottle?

Perhaps.

But you might want to consider doing something else: waiting.

And not just a few minutes or hours. Perhaps even waiting a day - or even more - to drink this wine.

Some wines do strange things when you release them from the prison of their bottle. When they mix with the air, certain wines don’t open up as fast as others. Their flavors stay metaphorically corked inside.

This especially happens with certain stronger, bolder red wines like California zinfandels, Oregon pinot noirs, Argentina malbecs, Spanish wines from Rioja and French wines from the Rhone region. These big, fleshy wines sometimes need a little extra time to work their magic in the glass. Unfortunately, many of us are too impatient or excited to wait to fully appreciate these marvelous wines.

So how can you tell if your wines worth a second chance or just plain bad? Here are a few hints to help you make the most of your wine, today, tomorrow and perhaps even longer.Just make sure you re-cork the wine after you pour some of it into a glass. Remember, wine’s made from fruit. And if you leave the bottle open for a few hours or longer, the magical aromas and flavors that make each one unique will escape into thin air before you have the pleasure of enjoying them. And that would truly be a waste! So without further ado...

Taste often: As soon as you open the wine, taste it. Don’t wait. Don’t swirl it around and around. Take a taste. By doing so quickly, you can set the bar so to speak for how the wine tastes. If you like what you’re drinking, enjoy. Why try to fix what isn’t broken? If you’re not happy with the wine, well then...

Swirl around: I know how stupid and obnoxious it looks when you see people swirling their wine around in the glass. Who are they trying to impress, you’re probably thinking. But as dumb as these people look (me included), there’s a reason why we’re whipping the wine around inside our glasses, especially if they’re out to eat in a restaurant. All that motion helps release the flavors trapped inside the wine. And the clock’s ticking when you’re out to eat and want to enjoy that wine with your meal.

If it’s a “good” wine (a loaded term if there ever was one), you should notice a difference in the way the wine tastes. With each whirling dervish, your wine should taste smoother and the flavors should linger longer on the tip of your tongue.

And if you don’t feel like swirling the wine around in the glass - or are nervous about spilling it - another method for aerating the wine is simply pouring the wine back and forth between two glasses. This can often perform miracles for the wine.

But sometimes, all this swirling and pouring isn’t enough. That’s when it’s time to...Be patient: If you’re at home and the wine still tastes a bit sharp, put the glass aside for an hour - or even two. It’s absolutely amazing how much different a wine can taste after simply sitting in a glass for a few hours.

But what if the wine’s still tastes sharp? This is when you...

Wait even more: The idea of opening a bottle of wine and not drinking it for a few hours or even a day might seem insane to many people. But trust me. If the wine’s good and has a lot of big, bold flavors, the wait is well worth it. I can’t even count how many times I have opened a wine one day, drank some of it and thought it was alright, only to drink the rest of it the next day and marvel at how amazing the wine tastes. The last time this happened was when I was drinking a bottle of 2007 Vieux Lazarat from the Chateauneuf du Pape region in France. The wine was simply amazing the second day! So rich, so complex, so fascinating and thrilling to drink.

That wine cost $30 a bottle. But interestingly, the same thing, to a lesser degree, happened when I waited a few days to finish the rest of a $3 bottle of wine, the Oak Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon. The remaining wine in the bottle was smoother, richer, more subtle on the tip of my tongue.Now, the tricky part is, some wines don’t get better with age. They’re just as bad the second day. Especially wines that have a darker, muddier color.

The solution?

Have more than one bottle on hand that you know you like, just in case the waiting game doesn’t pay off.


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