Opening an old wine is always a moment of risk. You’ve left your bottle in your wine cellar for years. The long-awaited moment has arrived, you’re going to taste this nectar. But opening an old wine is delicate, and there are a few steps you don’t want to skip if you want to fully enjoy what’s in the bottle. Here are the techniques we recommend for getting the most out of your oldest vintages.
Store your wine well
Obviously, storing your wine well matters even before you think about opening it. Good storage in your ageing wine cellar protects both wine and cork. After many years in the cellar, the cork tends to deteriorate. The humidity of your cellar is essential, it keeps cork degradation to a minimum. So before opening, make sure you’ve stored well.
Stand your bottle upright
You’ve decided to open the beautiful bottle that’s been waiting in your cellar for years. If the moment has come, you’ll need patience until the very end. Take the bottle out of its slot and stand it upright. As you do, the sediment will gradually settle at the bottom of the bottle. From there, it won’t get in the way of the tasting.
Open with the right corkscrew
A few hours before tasting, you can open the bottle. But when opening an old wine, one question always comes up: will the cork hold? To minimize the risk of breakage, we’d recommend a two-prong cork puller. This kind of corkscrew avoids piercing the cork and limits the risk of breaking or crumbling it. Trust us, we’ve often dreamed of having a two-prong cork puller when opening certain bottles. Once the bottle is open, pour a few drops into a glass. Taste it to check for any defects. Pouring a few centiliters in a glass also widens the surface area between wine and oxygen, gently kicking off its meeting with the wider world.
Decant your wine
You’ve cracked open the old wine. Now to nail the tasting. For this, you can decant your wine. Unlike aerating, decanting limits oxygen contact while separating the wine from its sediment. Your wine will be ready for a great tasting and you can enjoy every drop. Of course, don’t forget to pick the right wine glass for the occasion.
You’re now an expert at opening old wine, and you can keep going. To learn more about wine, you can join Le Club. Le Club is a totally free space for learning wine simply. Sign up, you won’t regret it.
