This is a sad story.

I had stored some very good cabs (e.g. 83-84-85 Stag's Leap Napa Valley
et.al.)in a coat closet floor, insulated above and below with coats (hey, it
was a coat closet). I had always kept these wines "insulated" and in the
dark. Only one in five were wonderful when consumed in the last 12 months,
and even it had oxidized to a rusty reddish-brown. Corks had disintegrated
on the wine end and all of them broke upon removal. It was heart breaking.
I still have about six wines from the 1985-87 vintages. I should limit the
loss and marinate some steaks or something .....

The best is a 1985 Ridge Zinfandel, Geyserville.... : (


I should limit the loss and marinate some steaks or something .....

--
KB
St. Charles, MO
--

On 5/14/04 6:26 PM, in article ,
"K. B." > wrote:

> This is a sad story.
>
> I had stored some very good cabs (e.g. 83-84-85 Stag's Leap Napa Valley
> et.al.)in a coat closet floor, insulated above and below with coats (hey, it
> was a coat closet). I had always kept these wines "insulated" and in the
> dark. Only one in five were wonderful when consumed in the last 12 months,
> and even it had oxidized to a rusty reddish-brown. Corks had disintegrated
> on the wine end and all of them broke upon removal. It was heart breaking.
> I still have about six wines from the 1985-87 vintages. I should limit the
> loss and marinate some steaks or something .....
>
> The best is a 1985 Ridge Zinfandel, Geyserville.... : (
>
>
> I should limit the loss and marinate some steaks or something .....
>
> --
> KB
> St. Charles, MO

Ah, the other problem of wine storage that we haven't discusses recently -
lifetime of corks. Does anyone have information about this? I have heard,
but don't rightly know, that corks should be replaced about every 10 years
if you are storing wines for long term aging. I suspect the amount of
humidity can affect cork life -- too low and they will dry out from th
outside -- too high and things get moldy and rot. If you are only storing
for a few years, this shouldn't be as much of an issue.

--
Greg Cook
http://homepage.mac.com/gregcook/Wine
http://homepage.mac.com/gregcook/aws

(remove spamblocker from my email)

Hi Greg,
High humidity and mold only look bad, the wine is still ok with a
quality cork. Wine has been stored in damp caves for 100's of years;
I'm pretty sure that is why capsules started being used. (I'm not
saying you should just let it grow like crazy in a house, there are
other reasons why that may be unwise.)

It depends on the quality of the cork and its length as to how long
before replacement. Expensive wines are usually recorked every 20
years and topped up at that time, there is a small industry that does
that for the incredibly rich. That topping wine is always an
interesting situation if you don't have a bottle of the exact same
thing, and you need less than an ounce typically.

I have one bottle of 96 left we should be drinking soon; it's a white
with high acid, that's one of the reasons I quit bottling dry white
over 6.5 g/l TA.

Mine will never 20 years, I'm not sure anything we make here improves
beyond 3 years. I have a few Chancellors that were way too tannic
that are over 6 years old, those are staying put for a few more years.
I try a bottle every year or so to see if it's getting any better,
it's been 'stuck' at the same 'still too tannic' level for 4 years
now. It's not getting worse, just not ready to drink.
Regards,
Joe


> Ah, the other problem of wine storage that we haven't discusses recently -
> lifetime of corks. Does anyone have information about this? I have heard,
> but don't rightly know, that corks should be replaced about every 10 years
> if you are storing wines for long term aging. I suspect the amount of
> humidity can affect cork life -- too low and they will dry out from th
> outside -- too high and things get moldy and rot. If you are only storing
> for a few years, this shouldn't be as much of an issue.