Bodega Norton Reserva Malbec 2004

I've been a bad blogger, this is my first post in a week!

So, I leave you with an excellent wine value for the weekend. This Norton Reserva 2004 Malbec is one heck of a value at $8-$12 depending on where you live. It has dense berry flavor, nice structure, subtle tannins and a nice finish. This drinks like a much more expensive bottle. This marks the second bottle from Argentina, there's some tremendous value wines coming from the New World. Cheers!

Saving Your Wine, Vacu Vin Style

In the last post I discussed the benefit of letting wine breath and stretch it's legs, but there's a limit. Wine is a fermented product which contains preservatives, sulfites to be exact. Sulfites or sulfur dioxide is a fruit preservative widely used in dried fruits as well as wine. These sulfites will help preserve the wine in the bottle but after it's opened, it's a different story. After the wine is exposed to air the wine starts a slow and steady decline towards vinegar. In my experience a wine tastes starkly different the day after it's opened and it only gets worse as more time passes.

A lot of people stick the cork back in the bottle, which helps a little, but not much. I saw a special one day on the human body, I learned that one antioxidant keeping us alive, Oxygen, is also killing us slowly. The very same Oxygen is also killing your newly opened bottle of wine.

Alas there are some things you can do to extend the life of your bottle. Much like produce, milk, eggs, etc. keeping the wine refrigerated after opening can extend it's life a little, but removing the oxygen can extend it's life a LOT.

The Vacu Vin, is a simple contraption that enables you to re-cork and remove the air from an opened bottle of wine. It's a simple product, easy to do and works like a charm. You can pick up a pack with pumper and two rubber corks at most liquor or wine stores. The Vacu Vin works like a bicycle pump in reverse. The rubber corks within have a valve not unlike your bike tire, accept instead of accepting air when you pump you're actually removing air when you pump. Depending on how much wine is left in your bottle, it make take more or less time to pump out the air (5-10 pumps). For good measure I like to pump until it becomes difficult to pull the "pumper" up and/or I can no longer smell the "wine air" I'm pumping out.

Let's face it, unless you're having a dinner party or sharing a bottle of wine with friends, the odds of you getting through an entire bottle of wine are slim. Unlike a beer, a bottle of wine is an investment when you open it, so why not save it for later without sacrificing taste? I have to admit, the first time I used a Vacu Vin, I was a little skeptical. After tasting the same wine I Vacu Vin'd a full week later, I was pleasantly surprised. The wine was very close to the day I opened it. Trust me, once you use this little contraption, you'll never go back. Cheers!

Wine Breathing, Wine "Stretching"

Imagine yourself in a box, the walls are tight against your skin as you curl up in the tightest of fetal positions. Imagine that you have no oxygen, very little light and the last thing you remember is someone telling you to put a cork in it. No this isn't the latest installation of the "Grudge" this is a day in the life of bottled wine, yearning to be free!

A friend told me a story today about a special wine that he opened for a very special occasion a few days ago. The much anticipated wine on first taste was harsh, acidic, and what he called awful. We've all been there, as we uncork a random bottle from the local store, but was it really all that bad? He proceeded to tell me that hours later when they tried the wine again it had "opened" up and was quite drinkable.

Imagine yourself again, stuck in the bottle (never mind how you were able to survive this long), and a nice gentleman decides to let you out. At first you can't really move, your muscles so affixed in the fetal position all you can do is roll from side to side. But as time passes you're able to move an arm, stretch a leg, bend your neck, until eventually you can walk upright again. This analogy in not unlike the process of letting a wine breath.

Don't believe me? Open a bottle of wine, any wine. Take a sip then let it sit open for a few hours, or for maximum effect pour the wine into a decanter. Take another taste later, in some situations it's like trying a completely different wine, you will be blown away.

This post is not to say wines are tasty right after corking, they can be, but good things come to those who wait...