On a balcony in Italy, not my back patio

I was sitting on my back patio the other day, just relaxing and letting my thoughts drift. A glass of red wine rested on the table in front of me. My house and patio are raised somewhat so that when you look out at the woods behind the house you are looking into the tops of trees – a tangle of leaves and branches from which you could hear the birds singing and watch the skitter of squirrels at play. The breeze stirred the liriope and the yew trees nearby and, for the moment at least, everything seemed right with the world.

            I took my first sip of wine and immediately I sat up straight. My attention was aroused. The wine was Frank Family Napa Valley Zinfandel 2008. What surprised me was that I’d poured this bottle on Thursday evening at a tasting and unfortunately found, as did a number of my guests, that the wine seemed to be going through a mute stage. It just wasn’t very interesting at all. I brought the partial bottle home with me and forgot about it for a few days – didn’t take any special care, just left it on the kitchen counter with the cork in. Now it was Sunday afternoon. Not expecting much I’d poured myself a glass. To my surprise and delight the wine now tasted terrific – rich, jammy, well-rounded, and all those wonderful things a Zinfandel should be.

            The whole experience reminded me that all too often many of us are quick to judge a wine by the first sip or two when to truly evaluate a wine one should explore the bottle over time to get the full experience. Of course when your job is to taste twenty or thirty or more wines a day this isn’t practicable, and some wine you just know will never be any better. But still I began to wonder how many bottles I had given up on too soon.

            Wine is constantly evolving. There is a long story to be told from vine to bottle, from bottle to glass. Everyone should try this occasionally: Open a bottle of a decent quality wine, take a sip immediately, think about it, take another sip ten minutes later, then an hour later, then at regular intervals over the next three or four days. Of course you’d never actually drink a bottle of wine this way, but for the sake of experiment it can really help you begin to understand one of wine’s many mysteries.

            Another thought that struck me during this Sunday afternoon idyll was how place – by which I mean the setting in which you taste the wine -- can affect your opinion of it. First of all, some wines just don’t travel well. Bottle shock (or bottle sickness) can occur during transport resulting in wine that seems unbalanced or disjointed. With young wine this can last from a few days to a few weeks. Some older vintages may never recover. The best way to avoid these kinds of problems in any major way is to buy from a reputable retailer who uses reputable distributers.

            But even beyond bottle shock – the setting matters. How many times have I known this to happen – You’re on vacation in, say, Napa Valley or the Mediterranean coast of Italy or France. You’re enjoying the wine with a spectacular meal at a restaurant. You’re relaxed. Perhaps you’re out of doors enjoying the local scenery. You fall in love with the wine. You go home and buy a bottle of the same wine hoping to relive the experience. You open it when you get home from work after you turn on the TV news and while you’re preparing dinner. Your thoughts are still caught up in the events of the day while the television assails you with war, crime, worsening economy, and the latest milestones in the life of Kim Kardashian. Suddenly you become aware that the wine is not as good as you remember it. Well – of course it isn’t!

            Enjoying wine often goes beyond the wine itself. You have to create the setting. Even in the tiniest of apartments you can relax with the wine. Turn off the TV. Put on some music that you love. Have an appetizer with it. Use your finest stemware, even on the most ordinary of days. Take the wine outside. Share it with a friend.

            Because beyond the quality of the wine is what you do to make it an enjoyable experience.

Bill Stobbs, ABC Wine Supervisor

(Follow me on Twitter @abcwinebills)