Handle with care: proper wine storage helps maintain vintage reputations

Nation's Restaurant News, August 26, 2002 by Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Ed McCarthy

We have never found a decent restaurant that served stale bread; on the contrary, the bread is usually super fresh, and often oven-warm. We only wish that wine were handled with the same care.

We recently dined in a top restaurant in San Francisco, one that has an excellent wine list. For aperitifs, we ordered two Italian white wines by the glass: a 1998 Tocai Friulano and a 1999 Verdicchio. The Tocai Friulano had obviously been open too long, and tasted tired. The Verdicchio, from a newly opened bottle, was oxidized. To his credit, the server immediately replaced both wines, giving us a Pinot Grigio of the 2000 vintage, which was excellent.

But we're not your typical restaurant customers. What happens when other restaurant goers taste a wine in poor condition and are not happy with it, but are not confident enough about their wine knowledge to complain? You can be sure that the restaurant's reputation suffers in their minds. However, the problem can be prevented by careful attention to how wine is stored, both at your restaurant and before it arrives at your door.

Wines that are served by the glass require the most monitoring, even if you have a wine-preservation machine. Someone in the restaurant should taste most of the open bottles each day before service, to ascertain their freshness. This is especially important for white wines, roses, and sparkling wines, all of which have a limited life after they're opened. If there's any doubt about a wine's condition, send the remains of the bottle to the kitchen for cooking.

Red wines are typically sturdier than whites and roses, but they also need checking for freshness. Dessert and fortified wines, such as Port, Madeira, or Sauternes, are the most durable of all, and don't require as much scrutiny.

Let's now address the problem of that 1999 Verdicchio, which was oxidized as soon as it was opened. How could that occur? It may have happened in many ways, even before the wine ever reached the restaurant. The wine may have been sitting at a dock or airport hanger for days in very warm temperatures. Or it could have been stored in a distributor's warehouse in less than ideal conditions. Only a few, enlightened distributors have temperature-controlled warehouses for their wines.

What's a restaurateur to do? Very simple. Your most experienced wine taster should sample a bottle from the case or cases of each new wine coming into the restaurant, and turn away any wines that seem damaged in any way. After a while, the distributor will get the message: you will accept only wine in good condition. It's not enough merely to sample the salesman's demonstration bottle; you could be receiving wine from an entirely different shipment.

When the wine does arrive in your restaurant, of course it is now your responsibility to store it in a cool place. Really cold storage, such as a walk-in, is not recommended, however. Deep cold numbs the wine's flavors, rendering it rather lifeless. Temperatures in the 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit range are ideal. Over 70 F spells a short life for the wine; the higher the temperature, the faster your wine will deteriorate. Also, make sure that the bottles are lying horizontally, so that the corks stay moist; dried-out corks will contract and allow air into the bottle.

You might have noted, by the way, that the oxidized Verdicchio mentioned above was a 1999, but the replacement Pinot Grigio was a 2000. In general, any decent white wine should last at least three years-if stored properly, that is. However, you can never be one hundred percent certain of a wine's condition until you try it. To play it safe, you are probably better off ordering the youngest white, rose, and sparkling wines that are available, especially when you're purchasing inexpensive wines, which might not be handled as carefully as costly wines. The younger the wine, the less time it has had to be damaged by poor storage conditions.

A final note: seek out wine distributors who maintain temperature-controlled warehouses and do business with them. By their investment in these warehouses, they've already indicated that they care about their wines' condition.

RELATED ARTICLE: WINE OF THE WEEK

2001 Antinori Vermentino (Italy)

From his Guado al Tasso estate in the coastal Bolgheri zone of Tuscany, Piero Antinori has introduced the newest member of his excellent family of wines. Vermentino, a white wine made from the variety of the same name, is popular along the Italian Riviera in Liguria, and on the island of Sardinia. With its crisp acidity, medium body, and lemony flavors, the Antinori 2001 Vermentino is an ideal accompaniment to seafood and fish, and perfect with pasta with pesto sauce.

Wholesale price per case: $81, case of six.

E-mail the authors at WineDum@aol.com