Serving Temperature

(Please note - as ever I speak only about wines of a red persuasion)

Once more I recently dealt with the whole "I thought you should serve wine at room temperature" thing when I served a rather lovely Petit Verdot at around 15°C, and only last night in a "restaurant" I heard the same thing from the waitress presenting me a bottle of wine at around 22°C, despite the label saying it should be enjoyed between 16°C and 18°C.
Let's think about this for one moment - apply some logic...

I live in an Alentejan farmhouse, at altitude, with no heating - when we start dinner in the winter the lounge is usually around 13°C (don't worry, we put a heater on), in the summer around 25°C. So, depending on the season, the same wine should be served at such radically different temperatures?
Of course not!
This whole "room temperature" thing was perhaps broadly true in days of yore, before central heating, when the houses of Europe had very thick walls, a single fire-place you sat next to when you wanted to be warm, and temperatures in the body of the room rarely left the 16°C to 18°C range. Wine was taken from the cellar, probably around 12°C to 14°C, and allowed to "warm up" a little before consumption.

OK.
Myth debunked, let's move on...

Why is this so important?

Because a red wine served too warm just isn't showing you its best side - whilst there's quite a lot of subtlety involved, in broad brush strokes...

• In a wine served too warm the alcohol tends to dominate, masking the very flavours you spent your hard-earned euros to be enjoying.
• In a wine served too cool there can be too much astringency due to overemphasised tannins.

If you're used to drinking your red wine too warm, it can be a bit of a shock to start tasting them cooler - but give it a go - put a glass of wine at your usual temperature in the fridge for, say, 10 minutes, and then taste side by side with a newly poured glass, and be objective.

OK.

Sold!

How do I achieve optimal temperature?

You can, these days, buy machines in which you can put your bottle, type in the number you want and, bingo, in a while it's at the right temperature.

I have yet to see one of these devices that will take a decanter and you are, of course, serving from a decanter, so those are pretty much useless for red wine.

Once I became a convert to drinking at the correct temperature I only had a problem in the summer. What I used to do was put the decanter in a cool box with one or two of those ice block things (depending on ambient temperature) straight from the freezer, for a couple of hours. About half an hour before dinner I'd taste a small sample and, depending on the temperature, either leave it there, or remove it to warm up a little.

Of course, after a while, I wanted something a little more automatic and a little less hit-and-miss, so I bought an electronic temperature sensor switch for about 15€ and rigged up an old CamperVan 3-power-source fridge (it's ammonia based, so sits completely silently in the lounge). I just pop the decanter in and after an hour or so it's good to go - the other advantage is that, when I put the decanter back, every glass of wine will be at the correct temperature.

And out and about...?

Any restaurant serving quality wine should be taking it from a cooler at the correct temperature - and some do. I vividly remember the first time I ate at As Colunas in Lisbon - after a few days of being offered hot wine I politely asked Joanna if they had the wines on the (rather excellent) wine list at "more or less the right temperature" - she smiled and said "No, we serve all these wines at exactly the right temperature" - and so they did, and do.
But, sadly, many don't - why they expect you to pay 100€ or more for a bottle of wine at 25°C is beyond me. Personally I wouldn't pay it.
But you'll find yourselves in places where the wine is just too hot to be a pleasant - what do you do?
This is really pretty simple - you ask for an ice-bucket, or, as last resort, a "manga" (a sleeve they take from the deep freeze, usually used for white wine). Yes, they'll look at you strangely, as will the other customers - because, of course, they're all thinking "room temperature" - but they're your euros, and the white wine people expect one, so why shouldn't you? The Zé do Cozido, one of our favourite Lisbon restaurants, are always happy to decant the wine and pop the decanter into an ice-bucket.
After 10 minutes or so you'll notice the difference, and probably after 30 or so you'll need to take it out to stop it becoming too cold.

Cafés are a different proposition - sure, it's likely to be cheap wine, usually from a box, but it will still taste a lot better cooler, not to mention that at 35°C it will be disgusting. Many cafés will have decanted some from the box into a bottle and put that in the fridge - excellent people! - yes, too cold, but when you're outside basking in the 40°C it will soon warm up.

Where to buy wine

Perhaps this seems like a strange topic - it's obvious where you buy wine, isn't it?
Probably so, but I'd like to make some observations, and it's my blog!

Adegas

This is my favourite place to acquire wine, for a number of reasons...

• Smaller producers especially are, in my experience, very happy to show you around, and chat to you about their wines - their insights into their particular terroir, production methods, history etc etc can be quite fascinating. And there's something a little more special about drinking a wine you bought last week from the people who live with their vines every day of the year and actually made it. My very first Adega visit was to Nuno at Fonte d'Avis - a very small producer who make one of my all time favourite wines (Fonte d'Avis Reserva 2007, which was why I went) - to this day I remember the hours we spent on his porch that hot afternoon eating cheese and bread, sipping wine and ending with a carafe of his home made "port" wine, straight from the barrel - and every time I drink his (very much his) wine fine memories flood back.
• Some Adegas have very special pricing for people who visit. But don't take that as a given - some seem to have "protect the shop" pricing which can be more than if you can find their wines in supermarkets.
• Some wines can actually be quite hard to find through other means.

But sometimes you need to buy whole cases - this can be risky if you don't know the wine or the producer - this is but one excellent reason for attending tastings.

Supermarkets

I seem to often find myself in supermarkets - my wife seems to want to keep buying food - but looking at the wine selection provides me something to do, and I actually buy a fair amount of supermarket wine.

• Intermarché is a very interesting supermarket chain since, I'm told, many of them are franchises. This means that the offerings in one Intermarché are usually quite different to that in another - often featuring local wines - up in the Dão, for example, you'll find a lot more Dão wines than you do in the Alentejo - and often at very good prices. They also quite often seem to feature "strange" old wines which are often quite good value - our local one here in Portalegre suddenly had a 2003 Dão wine from the Quinta da Infesta - I know, why was a such a strange Dão wine here? - fabulous value at 2.49€.
• Loyalty cards can make a huge difference. Continent often has 10%, or more, off everything and, once in a while, a "25% off all Alentejo wines" offer crops up where we are - this is the time to clear their shelves of Marquês de Borba Reserva 2012, for example, or the Mouchão 2011 - good value at 30€, but a steal at under 23€, and to try some other wines at the "lower" price.

Garrafeiras

Garrafeiras (wine shops) are, of course, one of the classic places to find a wide range of wines, including those "special" (aka expensive) wines and ports.

I personally very rarely buy from these places. Once in a while in Lisbon, for example, I'll buy a single bottle from a Garrafeira, or the El Corte Ingles Gourmet shop, but I'm usually on foot and not wanting to hoik a bottle around on my back for the rest of the day. On occasion I've found myself with a car near such a place, and then I'll buy a few (or more) bottles. Of course I simply love to window shop in these places when I pass them!

I would urge diligence when buying in such places - care and caution, even, and that concerns pricing.

It's not that wine in Garrafeiras is necessarily overpriced - much of it isn't - but some of it most definitely is - and that varies from Garrafeira to Garrafeira and from wine to wine. So you might be in a shop and have looked at 5 wines whose price, more or less, you know (you should always do this first in a new shop - find some wines whose prices you know to compare) - do not deduce that "the prices in this shop are uniformly (un)reasonable". For reasons I don't really understand, but perhaps have to do with distribution channels, Garrafeiras always seem to have some "good value", and some "not such good value" wines on offer - the shop next door might have the same "not such good value" wine at a "good value" price!

Unless you have money to burn - in which case please drop me a line and we can become drinking buddies - I think it's best, by and large, to know what you want to buy, and for approximately how much, when you enter such places.

Mail Order

Although I have, in my time, bought by mail order, this is, by a long way, my least favourite way of buying wine.

• Where I live delivery is a problem - my house has no number, and sits on a road with no name, near a village whose name only the locals know, and, for some reason I simply can't fathom, delivery drivers have no access to any GPS technology (despite them all having smart phones). I don't like to "stay in" to receive a scheduled delivery only for that delivery not to turn up. I've been stung twice (although not buying wine) with goods failing to turn up. Only recently I bought 3 bottles of vintage port wine which were delivered to the wrong address - and the guy proceeded to give them away. If you live in a "delivery safe" place, this probably doesn't apply to you.
• Most mail order companies have failed my "reply to an email" test. Before considering buying anything mail order, if I will have to pay in advance, be it wine or anything else, I will write an email to the company, in Portuguese and English, with a query of some sort. Yes, this is a test. Sadly, most companies fail by simply not replying. If they can't answer me before they have my money, what will the situation be like when they have my money?
• Through much of the year I don't like the idea of my wine sitting in the back of a van for days on end - in the summer it might well cook, in the winter it might freeze.
• I simply don't like the idea of having to deal with any problems that might arise - the more so since I've already paid (in contrast to Portugal, many Spanish mail order wine stores offer "cash on delivery" - this system makes me happy)

I would also draw your attention to the pricing section above under "Garrafeiras" - in the mail order world this seems even more common, and I could show you wines for 20€ in one shop on offer for 50€s in others - diligence, diligence, diligence!

Restaurants

This is a very difficult section to write, and I have a lot to say about this, so I've going to save it for a whole essay on its own

"Wine Time"

"Wine Time" is something I (try to) encourage (some might say enforce) in my own household, with some success, and also when I'm out with friends and I've either brought a good bottle of wine, or bought one from the restaurant's wine list. Even "not so good" and "no so expensive" wines deserve, I think, their 2 minutes of concentration.

I know, I'm a horrible person.


Essentially "Wine Time" is quite simple - it's 2 minutes (only 2 minutes, who can begrudge that?) when you try to concentrate only on the wine - without distractions.

• You don't chat except about the wine.
• You don't watch the telly (even if Benfica are playing).
• You don't listen to music.
• You don't pick at the entrées.
• You don't look at the menu.
• You don't Facebook, or twoot, or twit, or instagroove, or text, or do any of those supposedly "social" things on your phones.

You try to concentrate only on the wine.

Just for 2 minutes.

Why?
I've found that, if you don't, it's just so very easy to sip, and drink, and quaff and not really notice what the wine actually tastes like and then suddenly it's gone. You think you probably enjoyed it, but you can't really remember.

Why?
Quite a lot of work goes into making that bottle of wine...
Back in 2004 (today's wine, as I write this, is a 2004) people went out into the fields and they picked grapes, quite probably by hand, quite possibly at night, maybe in high temperatures. These grapes were taken, possibly up a steep hill, to some form of transport and thence to a sorting station where someone sorted the grapes. Then they were carefully squished, fermented, racked, left to sleep, blended, bottled, labelled, packaged, transported and only after all that did they end up, as a "bottle of wine", on the shelf where you bought it.

Given all this work, not to mention the hard earned euros you've paid, I just happen to think that 2 minutes isn't too much time to give to that bottle of wine.

Vinhos Sogrape - Terra Franca - 2008

I've been to web sites, and blogs, which posted seemingly endless notes about wines which had, as far as I could tell, very little to commend them. Frankly I couldn't see the point, and I stopped reading them.
So I decided with my little cyber-effort here to adopt the Confucian approach "Speak only if it improves upon silence" - you'll see notes only about wines that are special in some way or other.

There's an old expression of which I'm sure you're aware - "you get what you pay for". In the wine world, as in most places, this is largely true - but once in a while you find a wine down on the bottom shelf (although, strictly speaking, this particular example was on a middle shelf), that's way better than its price tag would lead you to believe.

This I bought in Continente this morning - when I see a wine with some bottle age I'm generally willing to give it a go - with no expectations - but this surprised me with its delicacy (which is very different to frailty). When I'm next there, if they still have it, I'll score a few more, even without the discount - there are times when a wine such as this is just the ticket.

4 hour decant. 12.5%.
This was 1.99 euros before the 15% discount and, for that price, this is pretty good - sure, it's "vinho da mesa", but it's not aggressive, as cheapies often are - red fruits, nice balance, supple - fair finish with a background hint of sour.
88

Rating wines - what's a point?

Everywhere you look these days, wines seem to have an associated "rating" - so what's that all about and, in particular, when you see a points rating on my blog, what does it mean?

Somewhat unhelpfully, there are a number of different ratings scales for evaluating the "quality" of a wine - Revista dos Vinhos, for example, the Portuguese wine magazine, uses a 20 point scale.

In many other (I'd hesitate to say "most", although it probably is) cases a 100 point scale is used. I use the 100 scale, popularised by Robert Parker in the 1980s, so that's what I'm going to talk about. You might think, logically, that a terrible wine would score somewhere near zero, and a really great wine nearer 100.

Wrong!

Whilst every fibre of my being, as a mathematician, rails against it, the lowest score for a wine on the 100 point scale is 50. Yes, 50.

Bands between 50 and 100 are usually described along the following sort of lines...

• 50-69 Rubbish - quite possibly undrinkable 
• 70-79 Pretty crappy 
• 80-85 Good 
• 85-90 Very good 
• 90-93 Excellent 
• 94-97 Outstanding
• 98-100 Awesome

(To read a more "official" version from Robert Parker's "The Wine Advocate" - look here)

But why on earth do I care, or should I bother to score myself?

Fair question.

You should care because it gives you some idea of how good a wine is - you see an 85 point wine and you might be tempted to think of this in terms of a percentage - that this is, somehow, better than 84% of wines, which it simply isn't - an 85 point is wine is "just" a good wine.

Of course you don't need to score yourself, but it does provide a focus for your tasting - ultimately you're going to have to give it a number, which helps to concentrate the mind. It will also help when, in 2 years time, you're in a wine shop having tasted (and rated) 1000 wines to give yourself an idea as to whether or not you thought that was a good wine when you tasted it (and whether it's a good buy in the "only 5€" section, for example).

OK. So we should probably discuss some of the "problems" with the whole points rating system...

• People have differing opinions. Of course. Robert Parker, for example, was often criticised for his liking of "fruit bombs" - big, powerful, fruity, often quite alcoholic wines. Other reviewers disagreed, favouring lighter, more acidic, subtle wines. The solution to this "problem" is simple - know your reviewer, or at least get a feel for how their taste stacks up against yours.
• Points rate wine quality, which is nothing to do with your taste. The most extreme example of this, for me, is white wines - I simply don't much care for them - so what's a 91 point white to me? An excellent wine I probably won't like.
• The Price effect. From my viewpoint, the "quality" of the wine is absolute - regardless of whether I paid 2€ or 200€. Others, however, take cost into consideration - I think this is wrong. An 89 point wine costing 2€ is better value, but simply not as good a wine as a 91 point wine costing 200€. Value, or otherwise, belongs in the text section of the note, not in the number. Sometimes, of course, hand on heart, that's hard to do - it's difficult to "admit you were wrong" in having paid 60€ for a wine and then rating it at 82 points.
• Consistency. Perhaps this isn't a problem with professional reviewers, but I'm pretty sure it is for me. I have good days and bad days, happy days and sad days and my view of the wine in the glass varies. I try to fight it, but I don't always win. Consistency over time is difficult too - 4 years ago I might have rated a wine 90, since I knew (had tasted) no better - that same wine might get 86 now, or even 92, if it was, in fact, an excellent wine.
• What exactly is being rated? This is a bug-bear for me, and something often discussed on sites like CellarTracker. Some people rate what's in the glass (I'm one of those), and some people rate what they regard as the potential of what's in the glass (clearly they are witches or warlocks and know how a wine will develop over the next 25 years). I rate what's in the glass and, if I think the wine will improve, I'll make a comment in the associated text - I think everyone should do that. For this reason, amongst others, a tasting note consisting of only a number is nearly worthless unless you know the reviewer.
• Wine ratings affect future wines. The problem here is that when too many people start buying what the reviewers "recommend" (i.e. their highly rated wines), other wine producers have a tendency to change their techniques or production in order to produce wines more similar to those (i.e. wines that will get similarly high scores). Arguably why not - highly rated wines are more in demand and therefore command higher prices. But this isn't good for wine production - a range of styles to suit different tastes is required. But I personally don't fret about this - no-one cares except me about my ratings.

I conclude with a few personal observations about my tasting notes, and the rating that goes with them...

• I do to tend to score more highly wines that I like, wines with a lip-smacking moorishness that I call "yummy"  rather than to attempt to judge "wine quality" in absolute terms - I simply don't have the palette for the latter, nor the range of experience, nor the budget to try that Margaux, or Grange, or Petrus, or Screaming Eagle, or whatever to find out if those wines really are 99+ points wines. Will I ever get to try one of those fabled 100 point Noval Nacional Port Wines?
• 90 points is the "breakpoint" for me. Below that is a decent enough wine, and possibly good value for money, but, aside from the odd daily drinker if they're great value, or wines I think might well improve, I don't buy those again - there are enough wines I haven't tried yet, and always will be. I might buy more of wines I've rated at 90 or above, depending on the price, and how long I think they might last.
• I don't rate white wines. Once in a while one crosses my path and I write a tasting note, but I don't have the experience, or interest, to score them.

Quinta de Ventozelo - Porto Colheita - 1890

It's rare that mere mortals such as myself get to drink a wine of this age and acquiring it at an auction with unknown provenance was always going to be a risk.

But it was a risk I decided to take.

Ultimately a wine is only as good as it tastes, but with a rarity such as this there is, and should be, an intellectual element, so I did a little research to try to put a 126 year old wine into context.








1890...

• The year of the British Ultimatum, and the treaty of London
• The massacre at Wounded Knee
• The death of van Gogh
• The birth of Agatha Christie, Ho Chi Minh, Man Ray, Groucho Marx
• Queen Victoria still sits on the English throne Portugal still has a throne, and Carlos I sits on it;  Benjamin Harrison is President of the United States
• Coliseu dos Recreios opens in Lisbon
• No easyJet, no jets, no aeroplanes even
• No FaceBook, no internet, no computers

So - what was it like? Here's my tasting note...

4 hour decant. An 1890 barrel believed to be bottled in 1932. Bottom of cork very much stuck.
Decent at pop time but, when I poured 8 glasses of this to start my birthday dinner (no, I'm not 126 years old!), this had become an amazing wine - deep, clear, honey colour - smooth, oh so incredibly smooth - gentle warmth, with no real noticeable alcohol - nuts, an almond, hints of peel - so much going on - and a finish that lasted and lasted. We left the (empty) glasses on the table as we moved to wine, but the aroma was all pervasive. Truly a privilege.
98

Altas Quintas - Obsessão - 2007

I've been looking to drink a bottle of this for a while, so I took myself to the Adega yesterday and scored myself a case of this, amongst other delights.
One really has to wonder why I waited so long!

3 hour decant. 14%. Alicante Bouchet and Trincadeira.
Deepest inky purple - freshness and blue grapes in the nose - long silky legs - very much "yummy" in the mouth - full, lush, sexy, ripe - stylish without being snooty - lovely balance around firm tannins and fresh acidity - delicious wine with a huge finish.
92

I was told the 2011 is currently "sleeping" - when that's available, you can be sure a few cases of it will make their way to my cellar.