Some Considerations On The Scandals

A lot of wine-related controversy has been coming out of Italy: Brunello di Montalcino cut with non-authorized grapes, and very cheap wines tainted with dangerous acids, just to name a few issues. Although the Brunello affair had monopolized the attention of the media, it seems to me that is quite a bit less dangerous to drink small percentages of "non-authorized grapes" than substantial quantities of muriatic acid. I'm puzzled by the response given by the Italian Agriculture Minister regarding the tainted juice, which clarified questions from the UE by stating: "there is no threat for the public health; the problem was connected to the addition of water and sugar and the rest were common vinification procedures." The Minister also said that "small percentages of ammonia and muriatic acid are commonly used to activate the fermentation." What???? I spent many years in the wine world and never once heard of muriatic acid as a fermentation activator. I've heard about yeast, about a proper temperature and enzymes to encourage fermentation, but never acids. Maybe I just visited wineries that do not use a common vinification method - who knows? Regardless, what is disturbing is that the judges and investigators involved do not feel the same way the Ministry feels. They actually arrested Mr. Castagna, the scandal's perpetrator, for Agricultural fraud, and for putting public health at risk. Many others were indicted for the same felony, had their facilities seized in Puglia and Veneto, where the wine surrogate was created, prompting the police to refer to this scandal as one of the biggest food adulterations ever discovered in Italy. The Minister, on the other hand, is emphasizing the discovery of the Brunello affair and the utility of the "Vendemmia Sicura" (safe harvest), as though they arrested another big shot of the mafia.

Why is that?

The first answer that came to mind was the obvious, though awful answer: the cheap wine is a product for poorer people, and who really cares about their health anyway, right? It's not really a big problem if several thousand people get cancer from drinking what is essentially non-wine, as long there is a business of several hundred million Euros behind it. Let the indigent people die, right? Sadly, I think the problem lies exactly there - the Italian government cannot afford to admit and invoke consequences for such a large-scale crime. It would thrown certain sects of the economy into chronic anemia. There were an estimated 50 million bottles and tetra packs of fraudulent wine made and, according to the police, it is almost impossible to recall all of them. That said, it is in their better economic interests to amplify the Brunello scandal, which is barely a scandal to begin with. The point being, it serves as an innocent cover for (or at least a diversion from) the public attention to the real threat, so businesses might carry on as usual.

The other question is this: why didn't the Minister reveal the names of the wineries involved? The problem lies in the fact that the tainted wine was sold in bulk and then bottled by different estates, so the wineries probably bought the wine without knowing that was tainted. This leads me to believe that the estates involved in this scandal are most likely big names, producers who buy wines from all over and then bottle it under their name and sell it as a quality product for 2 euros at the supermarket... a 2 buck chuck type of philosophy. I must say, there are a lot of similarities, the key difference being that here in the States, it is legal to add sugar to must and call the resulting mixture "wine"; in Italy, it is not, so the ruthless criminals involved in this grand-scale scandal decided to use the dangerous acids to "break" the sucrose and turn it into glucose and fructose, which are naturally present in the grapes. Since those sugars are a key ingredient in the fermentation process (sugar will turn in alcohol), they have a product that can pass off as wine as well - and most importantly, it's LEGAL.

To tell the truth from an insider's perspective, the fact that not everybody in Montalcino uses 100% Sangiovese for their Brunello is no new news. It's just as well-known that not all Champagnes are made with grapes from the Champagne region, and that you can find small amounts of Barbera in some Barolo. The fact that it is common to augment such integrity-based wines does not make it right to do so - in fact, producers who DO make wines that are false to their classifications are still cheating, and deserve to be reprimanded. I don't have any sympathy for those who say that they were forced to add other grapes because of the taste profile of certain critics or what the market requires - if you like to please the crowd you can always bottle an IGT wine and follow whatever trend the market asks for in an honest way. Or, maybe we could all decide that it is allowable to use small percentages of other grapes and still label the wines as single varietals, like in the USA. Either way, I hope that this time, my fellow countrymen will learn the lesson, although I'm not sure they will, because as a good friend always says: "Italians love to cheat - it's in their DNA to do so." The problem is that because of few lowlife greedy people (actually the word I would like to use starts with "B," ends with an "S" and has "astard" in the middle) who are often protected by those in power, the reputations of too many honest people are compromised so it does eventually look like cheating is indeed, all we do.
My only hope is that sooner or later we can get rid of those "parasites" so that the honest people are able to continue to provide good products without the unfair competition that cheaters represent.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Meet the Makers: Roberto Cipresso Part 3

The Wine Station in Torrenieri Montalcino

Here it is, as I promised, the 3rd and last part of Cipresso's interview...

G: I know that you are pretty wanted. What is it that makes you pick a winery and what makes you leave it?

R: Well! The winery has to have some credentials that are not only the ones linked to the capital the owner has available, but also to the potential of it. It’s important to have a favorable terroir but mostly it’s important that the ambition of the winery be equal to its potentials. All this works very well. Then, another important element is to evaluate if the winemaker is a connoisseur and can become my accomplice because to make a superior wine you are always incurring big risks and often the winemakers can become the scapegoats of the situation. When does it end with a winery? Well, it can end because of an altercation, I do not know. It has, also happened. Normally, though, a consulting relationship comes to an end when the terroir has been explored, the winery is well trained and it has now the need of a relation of friendship and confrontation more than one of development. In addition to that, I’m afflicted by a grave illness which is boredom, and I can’t think to stay with the same winery for life because I have to constantly look for new incentives. Some wineries know about this, therefore, the friendship has become so deep that, in order to avoid losing the adrenaline that I need to work for them, every year they come up with something new and this is good for them, but mostly it is good for me, because when I have a lot on my plate I can also give the best of me. It seems strange. (laughs).

G: Let’s talk about your personal cellar, which wine do you have in there that is dearest to you: vintage and label, and which is the wine that you do not have but that you would like to have?

R: Oh my god! I have a lot of wines, and some of them are very special. I love Bourgogne but I love also like older Bordeaux. A wine that I have and that I observe and would like to drink every day, but desist from doing so is a Chateaux Mouton Rothschild ’82. This is one of the greatest wines of my life and I still have one bottle of it. Then, I have some of my wines, historical ones, like Ciacci ’90, wines by Pian Rosso, La Fiorita ’93, the vintage, the Mosclapado, the Pignolo of Dorigo, basically some very important wines but hmmmm…

G: The wine that you would like to have?

R: Probably a wine that I would like to have is one that I already drank, damn it! It is wine that I already drank and I do not have anymore and I regret. A Chardonnay Botrydis ’91 by Regaleali, for instance, is a wine that has left me speechless or, something like a Leoville Poyferre 1900; I drank it and I wrote a book on it. Then, a wine that I would like to have…damn! I would like them all! All of the best wines!

G: (laughs) you’re not the only one. There is why the passion for wine can become a very expensive one. To end our interview, I know that you are pretty busy, an advice for who enters the world of wine: what is the first thing that they should do?

R: Well, they would have take some time and some vacation because there is nothing better to understand wine to go and visit the winemakers, to spend time with them, listen to them and try to understand what risk means in this world where nature is not so generous like today people want to make you believe. Nature is treacherous and every morning each winemaker wakes up hoping that there be no hail, no wind and no frost. Therefore, you need a little time to understand the wine under the labor point of view and of the respect for it. Then, you need to drink wine, and a lot of it. Life is too short to drink bad wine; therefore, you need to drink only good wine. Finally, you certainly need to read. However, you cannot do only one of these things. You cannot just read, just drink o just go around cellars, because to hit the mark you need to be able to do all three of them.

G: As far as reading goes, I can personally advise your book: Il Romanzo del Vino (The Wine Fiction). We didn’t talk about it. Let’s spend some words on it. Il Romanzo del Vino truly is a fiction. On a technical level you write about things that are correct but its main essence is this fiction. This is the beauty of it: the fact that you explain difficult concepts in an original way. How did you come up with this idea?

R: Well, after so many years in this profession I’ve gathered a drawer, more than a drawer of notes, labels, but not only about the wines and the terroirs, also about the people in the wine field. The people in this field are a little special. I laid them on a table and I had a friend help me who’s an expert in writing, Giovanni Negri. So, a book was written and I didn’t believe that it could become so famous in such a short time. I hope soon to be able to propose it to the American market. This book called Il Romanzo del Vino more than a ”romanzo” is a real story, because fictions are made of fantasy. This is a true, romantic story enclosed in nine first chapters because these are all trips among the wine, the people, the history, the culture, the passion, the effort, among the emotions but also the blasphemies, because winemaking is something that is very real, very raw and very special. I tried to narrate it in a more comprehensible language, outside of the usual frames the ones that are too didactical, too fancy or too “oaked” as you would say with a glass in your hands, and searching for a more romantic formula that could be interesting, real and accessible under all aspects. This is a book that can be read even by a non-drinker.

G: Roberto, thanks a lot for your time. I wish you’ve had a pleasant visit here in New York, and I hope you’ll come and visit me the next time you’re in town.

R: Thanks to you too.

I like to thank Gilda Galiano for helping translate this interview.

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Would You Care For a Glass of Muriatic Acid?

The following story is today's news, but in reality , it's old news - a piece that L'Espresso published on their site today. (click here for the translated version)
Yet another scandal is scuffing Italy's reputation. After the "adjusted" Brunello fiasco, and the Mozzarella scare (in the end the EU tests came back negative), it became apparent that GREEDINESS has become one of the biggest problems the modern world is facing - the alarming and disconcerting realization that our supposedly "guaranteed" products may very well have been tampered with for the sake of a larger profit margin. The latest scandal has been discovered by the Guardia di Finanza, one of the Italian police agencies. According to the Guardia, a prosecutor and 2 judges, the issue at hand is very disturbing; 70 million liters of wine (which would fill 93 million bottles) have been found to contain only a small percentage of actual must (tests found between 20 and 40% of it).
The rest of the wine's content was composed of sugar, water, muriatic acid and sulfuric acid (widely used in liquid plumbers). Needless to say. the people who are exposed to this deadly mixture will most likely develop different types of cancers. There are 8 wineries who have been implicated so far, and 20 more are under investigation; one of them was already involved with a methanol-tainted wine scandal 22 years ago, a fiasco that killed 19 people and left another 15 blind. In winemaker Bruno Castagna's facilities, the police have discovered 60 Kg of sugar (sucrose) and large quantities of muriatic and sulfuric acids next to the tanks, a find which put the detectives on the right trail to uncover perhaps the biggest food adulteration fraud ever to happen in Italy. The sad part is that similar adulterations are made almost everywhere in the world - probably not to the extent of using such dangerous acids, but regardless, a product that is supposedly made from grapes to be composed mostly of something else is despicable. It is particularly sobering to remember that big corporations are in this field for profit that has to grow every year in order to satisfy the shareholders. It is shameful that that goal is now being sought out through dishonest means that compromise the basic integrity and quality levels that should be required for every eatable and drinkable product.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

How to Beat the Recession

There is a big debate within our borders regarding whether or not we are in a recession. The reality is that the US economy is not in a good shape to say the least, and the average level of spending is declining. I feel the repercussions of that in the store, where I'm paying against the strong Euro which is pushing the prices up, creating a dangerous gap between retail costs and the money in people's pockets.
So what should one do in order to maintain the quality of his healthy habits without going broke?
The first suggestion is simple: STAY AWAY from Bordeaux. The top quality Chateaus are amazing, as well as some second and third growths (Leoville Barton is a splendid example of my theory) - but if you could find a few deals in those categories six months ago, chances are, they too are almost untouchable today. The above-mentioned Leoville Barton went from being in the $50 range no more then 3 years ago to well over $100 on the shelf today. And in most of the wines below that level, you'll start to see the "high-tech" wines; the ones that are part of the "Constellation" philosophy. Like McDonald's, they might taste good, but they are not expressive nor are they experientially satisfying. Burgundy is still holding up its quality standards, but the prices are prohibitive. That region in particular would not allow, for morphological and historical reasons, the discussion of higher production levels, so the amounts available are very limited. And since the wines are sought out from all around the globe, the prices are pushed up to the moon, and rightfully so, I might add. So where should one go in France for quality that won't break the bank? I would look for Rhone, Cahors, Sancerre (a good Sancerre Rouge is better then an average Burgundy and cost less) The wines I believe are still fairly priced, considering that today because of the note exchange we are paying 60% more than we were 6 years ago. But with a keen eye, you can still find a good selections of Cotes du Rhone, and other more obscure appellations for under $20 on the shelf.
In France there is also still the Champagne phenomenon - a small, tough region in the north that still manages to have monster productions, lower the overall quality of the non-vintage products, and after all of that, still claiming a shortage of it, resulting in the prices doubling over the course of just a few months. Want an example? Here's a good one: the wholesale price of the Laurent Perrier Brut NV in April will go from $174 to $ 204 for a case of six and from $ 510 to $ 990 for the Grand Siecle La Cuvee (these prices are published with the State Liquor Authority and are both the 1st case price). So if the 30% increase in price for the NV Brut can be justified buy the Euro's unstoppable strength (although there was another increase of 20% in September) the close to 100% increase for the Grand Siecle cannot be. As an alternative, sparkling wines from Italy, especially Piedmont, Lombardia (Franciacorta) and Trentino have the potential for very serious quality at a fraction of the price of Champagne (this category doesn't necessarily include Prosecco, which is not made using the traditional Champanoise Method). An additional similar alternative can be found in Spain as well, with some of the better quality Cava.
In Italy, most economy-related things are better off than they are in France - but still some of the more sought-out wineries can charge an arm and a leg for a bottle. If you compare the best from Barolo, Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino could be a good example, which sells for little over $ 300 retail. For the best from Burgundy, Romanee Conti and Henry Jayer sell for well over $ 300, and in some cases, they're getting closer to four figures. And while you can find great quality in the $40-$50 range with wineries like Fantino, Rocche dei Manzoni, Eraldo Viberti and many others, but then again, it cannot be the wine of choice in a moment of crisis. Once again I would look at different "Denominazioni." A Carema or a Gattinara has a more down-to-earth price point, while maintaining a good level of quality. I think it's better to spend $29 for a great Carema than 30+ for an average Barolo. Even if you have an occasion where you cannot live without Nebbiolo but your budget is $20, Valtellina is the place you want to look. A good Rosso di Valtellina can be found in the $15-$20 range and in some cases tastes better then the 20+ dollar Langhe Rosso from Piedmont. A similar argument can be made for Tuscany and Veneto and if your taste is open enough you can also substitute the wines with monumental stigma with something coming from a not-so-well-known wine region, like Abruzzo, Marche, Umbria, Apulia, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia. The same thing is generally true for the rest of the world as well , regarding where you can find great wine without inflated prices. Argentina's prices are stable, because the peso is the only currency in the world that has depreciated against the dollar in the past year. So my recession remedy suggestion is this; don't lower your quality standards. Instead, try choosing a less expensive, little-known denomination, but spend the same money on a higher quality wine.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Meet the Makers: Roberto Cipresso Part 2

… As I was saying before, there is more behind a bottle of wine than you might imagine. To make this concept even clearer, here is the second part of my interview with Roberto Cipresso, which, I hope might increase your passion and thirst for knowledge… and for more truly good wine.

R: We started by reviving an old tendril. The original was made of 800 vines and today La Fiorita became a 7 hectare estate. Today we have two Cru: Poggio al Sole, which is in the Sant’Angelo al Colle area and one in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, characterized by warm and sunny weather, and Pianbossolino, which is in the area closer to Montalcino, in a high, fresh and vertical position and it expresses different tones. Based on the vintage trend, part of each cru is made into Riserva and the other one is left for the regular Brunello. Today, there’s the idea to build a final block of vines, I’ve already intercepted the piece of land where this could take place, but we are moving slowly so that we do not risk overgrowing. La Fiorita today, with a 7-hectare land produces 20,000 Brunello bottles and a second wine named Laurus that represents the Rosso di Montalcino, but it actually isn’t because it is a blend of Sangiovese that makes it an IGT and a part of Merlot.

G: As you’ve said, you’re from Bassano del Grappa, any cultural shock moving in Toscana?

R: Yeah, Bassano is a different culture and a different type of people, I left with regret, first due to the “Malattia del Campanile” typical of people from Veneto, which is the inability to detach from their perish, and because I had to abandon my first, true passion which was the mountain. Of course, Tuscany has beautiful places, wonderful air, great light so much that I’ve decided to raise my children in that place. Beside the mental shock, at 23 years old, I have to admit that we have a strong elasticity of mind and the ability to rapidly change and revolutionize everything. I have to acknowledge that making such a move today would be much more difficult.

G: So, the encounter with Achaval-Ferrer; the Altamira vineyard discovery: do you remember what have you felt when you found those ancient Malbec plants?

R: Well, the discovery has been spectacular, because I found myself to chase a project in Argentina that in Spanish is called “Deferimento in Positivo” which means: a project promoted by the state offered to all of those in Argentina who were willing to invest in the north area of Mendoza, the one in San Juan, in exchange for a very interesting tax break. For this reason a big group of Cordova asked me to make a feasibility plan. We were supposed to understand if in the San Juan area we could start a relevant project of a certain quality. So, I went and I had an incredible experience, exploring land where I believe that no other human being has stepped foot on before. An experience that has left me a strong heritage: the friendship with Santiago Achaval and Manuel Ferrer, today my partners along with two friends Marcelo Victoria e Diego Rosso in a project that, in this case as well, started as a game and ended in a very important and relevant project. We planted a first vineyard in the Valle de Uco in the Tupungato area that is an hour south of Mendoza. Then, I started searching for an old vineyard looking for a land with an identity as close as possible to the old world. I looked for a higher point to find a peculiar microclimate until I found these old abandoned vines in the Consulta region south of Tupungato near the Rio Tunuyan. This was an amazing place, the vines were abandoned but old, almost secular near the mountain facing north (an ideal exposition for the south hemisphere). No one could ever imagine that, after a few years, those dying vines would have been able to provide such a great outcome. The satisfaction for my partners and me came as a surprise considering the market found for that wine, and the great reviews received by Wine Spectator and Robert Parker, where we were assigned respectively 96 and 98 points. Dazzling numbers.

G: Let’s go back to your consulting job: with so many wineries spread around Italy and around the world, how do you organize yourself to be always on top of your game?

R: In the beginning they were a few and I used to follow them on my own. Then, they increased and so did the people involved. At first, there was the Studio Cipresso, then, Winemaking which is a firm of professionals; six of them helping with the technical matters. Our responsibilities are divided by areas which they follow hand on. I’m the supervisor for this “school”. It is still my philosophy, they all report to me and then I make the decision and ultimately I’m the one responsible for the projects. Luckily I’m now able to make wine with four hands with some really talented professional people who are truly focus on these projects and who, like me, travel miles and miles every year.

G: Now that you have this structure that allows you to have some free time, you’ve decided to take on two new big projects: “Winecircus” and “Le Stazioni del Vino” (The Wine Stations). So tell me: don’t you enjoy resting?

R: (Laughs) This is a good point! I’d like to, but the thirst of research and the ambition to close the circle that started twenty years ago in the wine world is very high. In fact, there are two concurrent projects, Wine Circus and Winemaking, which in reality are the same type of plan but they are expressed in two different platforms. Winemaking deals with consulting, explores the land and meets with many different types of people, both in the work environment and in those with whom I have to mediate in order to find the right compromise into obtaining a feasible wine. On the other hand, Winecircus starts as a gymnasium, a big laboratory where my boys and I go above and beyond. We do not make wine for the market but here is where we deepen specific thesis that in other people’s vineyards cannot be done. So, we try to vinify some stocks of grapes that are impossible, vertical, in mountains, in old places, from old vines, by the sea, on the original rootstock, forgotten and abandoned varietals. Thanks to this project now we have a series of ingredients able to generate some very interesting wines, and among these, one that was released for the first time a few years ago, called La Quadratura del Cerchio. This actually represents a wine that is born with respect to the terroir, and that, at the same time, takes advantage of that terroir as an extraordinary ingredient, able to offer formulas that come out of mathematical theories but that develop into a more philosophical concept, for which, sometimes 1+1 can even be equal to 3. Wine Station, instead, by offering consulting for WineMaking and research for Winecircus, wants to be the Disneyland of wine, a place where the connoisseurs and the people curious about the wine with a sporty spirit can be able to drink in a very peculiar location. This is an old place that we are bringing back, where they can drink great wines, free of ties and lies, this is therefore, a real and original space. This is an area that I hope to be the one where instead of chasing after the world, the vineyards, the people, I welcome and wait for friends and connoisseurs to come and see me in such a suggestive place.

Stay tuned for the 3rd and last part...

Sicily is on the wine map now.

Sicily is the biggest and one of the most beautiful Mediterranean islands. It has been historically relevant for over 4000 years and it's very likely that it's soils hosted the first grapes ever planted on Italian turf.
It's a magical land that inspired Homer (Polyphemus, the Cyclops defeated by Odysseus dwelt on Mount Etna) as well as many other writers throughout the centuries. The soil is rich and luxurious but also demanding and hard to work - there are very hot and dry summers, fairly rainy and windy with great luminosity. The oldest trace of winemaking, dating back to over 4000 years ago, was found in Sicily, although the island just in recent years has been recognized for the wines. Historically Sicily produced wines to be sold "sfuso" (in bulk) often to France and the north of Italy where, because of the cold climate, there was a need for juices richer in sugars. Today along with the historical estates like Rallo, the king of Marsala, Donnafugata, Conte Tasca d'Almerita and the Duca di Salaparuta, new ones have flourished and in some cases outshone the more renowned estates. Wineries like Planeta, Cos, Valle dell' Acate, Passopisciaro of Andrea Franchetti, Palari, Spadafora, Santa Anastasia and many others helped Sicily to rose from the mediocre and antiquated conception of wine making to having a steady spot in the circle of top wines of the world. Recently I received an email with 90+ Parker ratings on Passopisciaro. The red wine of the year for the Gambero Rosso was indeed Sicilian (Palari Faro 2005) , and there are properties like COS and Spadafora that have embraced bio-sensitive (biodynamic and or organic) growing systems. COS actually started to use amphorae to age their Cerasuolo Pithos. The Cerasuolo di Vittoria (a blend of Nero d'Avola and Frappato) is the 1st DOCG of the island, meaning that now Sicily can sit with the elite of the Italians wine regions.
I had a brief but intense experience down in Sicily: a few years ago I participated in a project for a winery in a little town called Santa Venerina on the Mount Etna slopes. It is an amazing place - the land is black (composed by lava and ashes), very rich in organic substances, south west exposure, with a breathtaking view of Taormina and Giardini Naxos. And with Etna behind all of that, the place radiates a constant powerful energy (since the volcano is still very active you can feel its power just standing next to it). I believe that Sicily is still unappreciated considering the concentration of historical sites, and the spectacular weather. I was swimming in the sea in November, eating the unbelievably fresh and tasty foods, from next-to-alive fish to the typical plates like Caponata, Cannoli and Cassate. You can ski in the winter on Mt. Etna and then start to enjoy the sea in the spring.
I don't think there are many islands in the world that have so many attractive qualities. No, I'm not paid by the Sicilian Tourism Agency. :) Actually, after I split up with my partners in the winery, I haven't be back there, so I'm actually surprised that after so many years, every time I think about Sicily I still have a powerful nostalgia for that magical and impossible island.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Young Or Old?

A few weeks ago I was reading, with a bit of jealousy I must say, Eric Asimov's diary on DRC tasting. While reading I was struck by the comments of the co-owner and co-director of the estate Aubert de Villaine on the possibility of drinking a Burgundy in early age; "when you get older, you develop a taste for young wine." My first thought was one of disbelief... but then I remembered how the Tuscans drink their own wines - young - and it didn't seem so irrational after all.
Obviously there are some wines that need to be drunk young and others that need more time to develop, a fair few having almost the same progression as a human being - a few years of infancy, followed by childhood, adolescence, puberty and so on. Wines like Barolo, Burgundy, Brunello and in some aspects, also Bordeaux age like humans. A bottle develops, grows, changes in color and characteristic, loses power and gains complexity, until finally shrinking (ullage) into death. Now if that is somehow true my question is: are all of the teenagers not quite worthy of our attention? My answer is no - Mozart was a prodigy in his childhood, as was Picasso. So is it possible to appreciate a wine, which is destined to grow old, in early age? Now my answer gets a bit more complicated. Yes of course I enjoy young wines - they are more challenging, austere, bitter and astringent, is fun to let them open in a glass and feel my taste buds battle through the tight tannins. It's akin to wrestling with a kid and tricking his impetuous energy with the experience. But, on the other hand the chess game you can have with an older wine is also a great experience. Ideally, there would be enough bottles of the same wine to enjoy it in all the stages of its life, but that is a prohibitively costly solution, not only in simple practice, but because it implies the acquisition of larger quantity of the same wine for every vintage, which for most of us is not possible. So, the process I like to use goes something like this: open a wine and pour a glass right away, take a sip and set an aroma/taste benchmark - are there any aromas or flavors at all? How hard are they to detect? What are they? Then, keep tasting it in regular intervals (every half an hour, for example) and see how the wine changes. Then leave the bottle open with a piece of paper on top (so none of our small flying friends can usurp your fine juice) until the following day and pour another glass... and so on until the wine dies or the bottle is finished. That will give you a pretty good idea on the wine's longevity. Usually after the second day you will start to taste the oxidation, although I've had wines that lasted over 3 days (like Bernard Faurie Saint Joseph I wrote about a while ago). Doing this, you don't need to open a bottle per year - you can decide when the wine will be developed enough to be enjoyed. But! - the real question here is whether or not you can enjoy young a wine ought to age; as I mentioned before, the Tuscans like their wine young... they are wine pedophiles. I always thought of that as sort of a sin, but growing up I find more pleasure in drinking a wine at an early stage, like Mr. de Villaine did, so I my answer will be yes I can, and I not only think is important for my job to do so, but is becoming a growing pleasure to sip low ph and Gallotannins. Am I becoming wine pedophile as well...
Buon Bevuta a Tutti