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Q: How do I keep my left-over wine?
Question from Anne: We can’t always finish the bottle over dinner and the left-over wine never seems to taste as good. Can you give me some advice about how to keep open wine?
Reply: Hi, Anne! Thanks for writing! This is one of those questions I have to think about for a few minutes because the concept of left-over wine is kinda foreign around here! 
So, this is hypothetical, but we understand there are some viable options…
Actually, it’s always a treat to find out there’s a little wine left after a dinner party to help sustain you through clean-up. And, finishing it up is one of your best options unless, of course, you’ll be driving or you’re just plain wined-out (another exotic notion).
It’s true that time makes the open wine seem faded or dull. If you wait long enough, it will become downright offensive (but not harmful)! The culprit is the oxygen, so it’s an easy problem to solve.
If it’s possible to get back to it within a couple of days it should be okay (sometimes young reds taste better the next day!).
If it’s going to be more than a day or two:
Move the wine to a smaller bottle to eliminate the head space. I keep clean half bottles and beer bottles on hand. This is my favorite method because it doesn’t cost anything and, if the bottle’s full and refrigerated, it works! Too tired to do this after the party’s over? At least refrigerate the wine and it will probably keep for a couple of days.
Purchase a vacuum pump, which extracts the oxygen from the head space, or a can of inert gas, which displaces it, at a wine shop or from an online wine accessories site (the best known brands are the VacuVin pump or Private Preserve gas).
Use it for cooking – keeping in mind that whatever the wine tastes like is the flavor you’re adding to your food.
Start your own special batch of wine vinegar!
Call the neighbors – you’ll become very popular! Cheers!
Old World, New World…
Question from Lisa: Hi Nancy, I’m trying to understand the philosophical differences in wine making between old world and new world wines. Thank you for your time.
Reply: Hi, Lisa! Thanks for writing! Complicated question, so bear with me…
The lines between new world and old-world styles have begun to blur a bit but, classically, new-world wines are bigger, more fruit forward, softer of acid and higher in alcohol than old world wines. New-world wines may be more likely to display conspicuous oak but, with the powerful wine writers rewarding big, fruit-forward wines that have noticeable oak, some of the winemakers in Europe have adjusted their approach.
With the ease of communication and travel, there are fewer and fewer differences in winemaking. It’s extremely common for aspiring European winemakers to do internships at new-world wineries and vice versa. If I cite a general difference, old-world winemakers are more likely to rely on tradition and what they learned from Dad and Grandad in their approach. Most new-world wine regions don’t have the kind of history they do in Europe, so they tend to be more analytical about what they do, and why, and rely on research more than tradition. You’ll probably find a higher percentage of wineries with “high-tech” equipment, using cutting-edge techniques in the new world than you might in the old world. These are gross generalizations because you can find very traditional wineries right next door to cutting-edge ones in any wine region.
If you’re asking because you taste differences, the best explanation is weather. Many new-world regions, certainly most in California, are relatively warm climates. Most of the famous European regions would be called relatively cool. This absolutely makes a difference in the degree of ripeness of the fruit at harvest. What this means is that a cool year is a good year in most of California and a warm year is a good year in most of Europe. Climate change is having some interesting effects. Germany has had some of their best vintages, ever, in recent years because the weather’s been relatively warm. And they’re beginning to plant more wine grapes in southern England, an area that has been considered too cold in the past.As far as the difference in the wines, warmer climates mean grapes that are often harvested at relatively high sugars, with ripe flavors and relatively soft acidity. That translates to very fruity wines (which some Europeans characterize as sweet) with relatively high alcohol and a soft finish. These wines are usually very approachable and go down easy, even when they’re young.
Cool-climate grapes may be harvested at lower sugars, higher acids and the flavors will probably not be as ripe. The wines are usually leaner, lower in alcohol, show more earthy and herbaceous character, in addition to fruit, and are often a bit tarter. Sometimes these wines are harder to enjoy in their youth, depending upon the level of acidity and tannin, but those components can also prolong the wine’s life.
The style we prefer is usually the one that we’re accustomed to.
I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have more questions. Cheers! Nancy
Q: What is Terroir?
Question from Hank: What do they mean when they talk about “terroir”?
Reply: Hi, Hank! Thanks for writing – I think. This is a tough question, because there’s no one answer, so better get yourself a glass of wine… It’s a French term, with no direct English translation and, if you look it up online, you’ll notice that no one agrees on what it encompasses. But, here goes:
I think Jamie Goode, at Wine Anorak, gets the spirit of the thing very nicely. He says “… it can probably best be summed-up as the possession by a wine of a sense of place, or ‘somewhereness’. That is, a wine from a particular patch of ground expresses characteristics related to the physical environment in which the grapes are grown.”
There are lots of ways to look at it – on a macro level, you could say that terroir is the reason that Cabernet Sauvignon from the Medoc doesn’t taste the same as Cabernet from Napa Valley. The Burgundians tend to go by the meter when it comes to differences in terroir – I’d call that a micro-approach. On our 9-acre site here at the winery we see differences from the Cabernet that’s harvested in front of the winery and the Cab that grows behind it, several yards away – also micro – and we’d have to attribute that to differences in the soil. So, as Jamie would say, we’re experiencing “…site-specific differences in wines that are caused by factors such as soil types, drainage, local microclimate and sun exposure – some sort of link to geography…”
Uber-purists say that terroir has only to do with the soil. That’s a pretty small group. Lots of people think terroir takes in a combination of soil, climate, topography and exposure. And a few go on to include the intervention of man – the vineyard manager’s choice of rootstock or decision to pull leaves or thin the crop.
We know that soil can’t directly flavor the grapes. If it could, as Dr. Mark Matthews of UC Davis says in a quote to the New York Times, they’d “…taste like dirt. Any minerals from the solid rock that vine roots do absorb have to be dissolved first in the soil moisture. Most of them are essential nutrients, and they mainly affect how well the plant as a whole grows.”
You can see that all of this has nothing to do with winemaking. And that’s interesting because some of our most technically-astute enologists believe that we mistakenly identify sulfur compounds, which may be the result of fermentations with nutrient deficiencies, as “terroir” flavors or mineral characteristics. Hmmm…
The Europeans are very terroir oriented, in fact it’s the basis for the way their wines are classified. In most cases, instead of naming the variety that makes the wine, it’s named for the place it comes from and there are local regulations as to which varieties may be grown for commercial purposes, presumably because they’ve done well there historically. Could other varieties do well in the region? Of course they could, but that’s the way it works.
And, of course, there are those who think the concept of terroir is a bunch of marketing hooey because the term is so frequently abused as a marketing enticement.
So, it’s a complicated subject and I’m afraid I’m guilty of a two-glass reply, but I hope it’s a start. Cheers! Nancy
Q: What’s a “Dry” Wine?
Question from Andrew: Hello. I’m confused about the term “dry”. What does it mean?
Reply: Hi, Andrew! Thanks for writing! That term is misused so often that it’s no wonder everyone is confused. There’s a common perception that if you ask for a dry wine, you’re asking for a “good” one. Maybe it goes back to the days when a proliferation of truly-horrible sweet wine was sold, following repeal of prohibition.
Dry is the opposite of sweet. It has nothing to do with the quality or character of the wine. It’s meant to communicate the absence of sweetness.
Most of us can’t taste sugar in wine if it’s less than about .4%, so that’s the working benchmark. Wine is capable of fermenting much dryer than that, but it would be hard for most of us to tell the difference.
Here’s the way it works: Say the grapes are harvested at about 24% sugar. Fermentation is a natural chemical reaction in which yeast consumes the sugar, converting it to heat, carbon dioxide gas and alcohol (figure on a bout a 50-60% conversion rate of sugar to alcohol). To make a bone-dry wine, the winemaker lets the yeast use up all of the fermentable sugar, and comes out with a wine that’s about 13% alcohol. Generally speaking (the EU regulates this, the US doesn’t), if it’s .4% or less, we call it dry.
The most common ways to make sweet wine are:
1. Add sweet grape juice or “concentrate” to dry wine (adding sugar is illegal in California; in most regions that permit sugar additions it’s limited to the role of increasing the alcohol – not the sweetness).
2. Stop the fermentation, before the wine is dry, by chilling the wine and/or adding sulfur.
3. Stop the fermentation by adding alcohol (Port wine, for instance). The yeast can’t tolerate much over 16%.
But, there are sensory things that can trick your perception. For instance, alcohol has a sweet taste, so a dry wine that’s high in alcohol may seem to be sweet. Fruity flavors can trick your tongue into perceiving sugar that isn’t there. Sometimes our guests describe our Viognier as slightly sweet when it’s actually bone dry. It’s just amazingly fruity and fragrant.
And then, we have to go and confuse the situation! How?
1. Wine that’s actually a little sweet is often referred to as “dry” – think Chardonnay under about 12 bucks.
2. Champagne terminology: Brut is supposed to mean dry (but some are dryer than others). “Extra Dry” is a little sweet! !$##*%!
So, that’s a long answer to a short question, but I hope it helps. Cheers!
Can California Wines Be Aged?
Question from Jessica: I recently was told by a French wine connoisseur that he would not open a California wine bottle for 10 years +/- as he does with most of his French wines. When I purchased the wine, they told me that California wines are to be opened young. Can you please tell me how to know when to open a wine, specifically a California wine? Thank you.
Reply: Hi, Jessica! Thanks for writing! This seems to be our French vs. California month (see previous post)!
I wish there was a simple answer to your question, but there isn’t. I’ll start by giving you the big picture. I’m going to assume we’re speaking mainly about red wines although there are whites that age well, too.
First, the vast majority of wines are meant for early consumption no matter where they come from. For long-term aging, we’re talking about fine wine.
Second, there can be a difference in longevity between the great wines of California and Europe because of climatic differences. In most of the famous European wine-producing regions the climate errs on the cold side. Cool-climate wines tend to be higher in acid than warm-climate wines and acid is an excellent natural preservative (another natural preservative common to red wine is tannin, which comes from the grape skins). High-acid wines can be hard to drink when they’re young, but they stay lively in the bottle longer.
Most of California leans toward the warm end of the scale, so the wines are often lower in acidity. This usually makes them easy to drink when they’re young, but they may show signs of old age sooner than their cool-climate counterparts.
That’s the big picture, but exceptions abound. If you’ve heard of the “Judgement of Paris” (they’re making two movies about it!), you might be interested to know that a 30th anniversary rematch was held in 2006 pitting approximately 30-year-old wines from California (Bordeaux-types) against great French Bordeaux wines of the same age. The California wines took the top-five ranks.
Longevity can also depend on the grape variety that makes the wine and the specific region and its climate/terrain within the country or state. The variety is stated on the label for most California wines, where French wine is usually named for the region and the varieties used for commercial winemaking in the region are regulated by local authorities. For instance, Beaujolais wines, made of the Gamay grape, aren’t generally intended for long-term aging the way a fine Bordeaux (Cabernet/Merlot) or Burgundy (Pinot Noir) are. Granted, Beaujolais isn’t considered to be in the same league with fine Burgundy or Bordeaux. That’s another reason not to make general assumptions about countries and their wines. A country such as France makes some of the very finest wines in the world and also very ordinary, every-day wines and everything in between – just like California!
So, I’m not trying to dodge your question – I’m trying to suggest that it depends upon the individual wine. Given the big picture, that wine shop didn’t give you such bad advice. Better too young than too old! Please don’t feel shy about asking questions when you buy wine because a good wine shop will have a knowledgeable staff who will be happy to help you.
There’s more detail about aging in this article on our website. I hope this helps! Cheers! Nancy
Q: Store the bottle sideways or on a slant?
Question from Mike: Should the wine rack be built to store the wine sideways or at a slight angle? I have a bet riding on this. Thanks, Mike
Reply: Hi, Mike! Thanks for writing. Well, this one’s a draw. The vast majority of wine racks place the bottles in a horizontal position, but there’s nothing wrong with having them pointing down at an angle and you can even store cork-finished bottles upside down. Many wineries pack the cases with the bottles upside down for collectors who just stack the cases in the cellar and for distributors who may have the wine in storage for some months.
I decided to double-check with a higher authority, to see if there’s anything new on this from the “Oxford Companion to Wine“: “Bottles to be stored for more than a few weeks, however, should be stored so that any cork is kept damp and there is no possibility of its drying out and allowing in the enemy, oxygen. This usually entails storing the bottles horizontally. The wine itself in an inverted bottle comes to no harm. Research in the late 1990s suggested that an ideal storage position for wine bottles stoppered with a natural cork is at a slight angle from the horizontal so that the cork is kept damp but the air bubble of ullage just touches the cork rather than lying on top of the middle of the bottle. It has also been suggested by some that champagne ages most gracefully when stored in bottles that are kept upright rather than horizontal but this has not been proven.”
So, you can see that this supports both theories with, perhaps, a slight tip of the hat, and the cutting-edge award, to whoever prefers storing the wine at an angle.
While we’re on the subject, I get lots of questions about wine storage with the new closures such as plastic corks and screw caps. In that case, it may feel funny, but you don’t need to store them sideways (but you can, if you want) because the closures don’t need to be kept wet. Ah – our ever-changing world! Temperature is as important as ever.
I hope that helps!
If the bet was a dinner, I guess you go dutch!
Cheers! Nancy
Q: Proper Serving Temperatures?
Question from Sally: Hello Nancy! We are members of the Goosecross wine club and have acquired some very good wines from you. We recently purchased a wine cooler. Can you please tell me the proper temperature for chilling/serving both whites and reds. Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.
Reply: Hi, Sally! Thanks for being a part of our Wine Club and for writing!
Oh, boy… They say that in America we serve our reds too warm and our whites too cold, and I’m afraid it’s true a lot of the time. Of course, serving temperature, like everything else related to wine, is subjective but I’ll go with the tried and true suggestions and you can adjust to suit your taste.
For whites: Most of us enjoy our white wines with a bit of a chill, especially on a warm day. We suggest around the mid 50s F. for our Chardonnay (we serve it at cellar temperature here at the winery) and other complex whites, so you can just drink the wine straight out of your cooler if it’s set at cellar temperature – maybe just a tick cooler for lighter whites.
The guideline is the wine itself. If you serve a fine wine very cold, it contracts and offers very little aroma. For instance, when you make a pot of soup, you can smell it all over the house. If you take the left-over soup out of the fridge the next day, it has very little aroma . Also, the cold shocks and deadens your tongue and it’s hard to get much flavor (careful about serving ice water alongside your wine!). So, if you’re serving a very fine white or bubbly, you may not want to serve it too cold. If it’s a hot day and you want some ice-cold wine, just get something relatively simple and inexpensive and then you can even plunk in an ice cube, guilt free!
For reds: When the phrase “serve the red wine at room temperature” was first stated, they must have meant room temperature in some old European castle! 72 is way too warm to be pleasant for most of us! Cellar temperature, about 55-60, works well for most reds. When reds are served cold, just as with white wine, the aromas and flavors contract, leaving you with a mouth full of tannin. For the lighter-bodied ones, like our Tempranillo, you might err on the cool side and for substantial reds, like our Howell Mountain Cabernet, you might go to the warmer end of the scale, perhaps approaching 65.
I hope that helps! We have a wine-tasting class called Wine Basics in which we cover these kinds of topics, and it’s free for Wine Club members. Or you might enjoy this article on wine service at home from our website.
I hope that helps and that you’ll plan to come and visit some day! Cheers! Nancy
Q: What About this Decanting Gadget?
Question from Jeaninne: We just recently came across a device that you pour through into your glass that decantes or enhance the aroma and taste of the wine instantly. I cannot recall the name but it runs around $50. Have you heard of this?
Reply: Thanks for writing! It’s quite a coincidence that you happen to write us about that right now because we just published a podcast episode about numerous wine gadgets including the one that I believe you’ve just described. It sounds like you’ve heard about the Vinturi. It’s a lovely product that looks and sounds like it’s doing something, but we were disappointed because, when it came to a difference in the smell or taste of the wine, we couldn’t find it. That’s just our little group, and you may have different results, but our technical guy suggested that you’re better off simply swirling the wine in your wine glass ahead of consumption. Please, let it be said again that these comments are from our testing and not designed to disparage any vendors products. The purpose of swirling, decanting or, presumably, using one of these gadgets is to release aromatic compounds called esters that are bound in solution. The agitation releases them as vapor, which brings out the aroma of the wine. Decanting takes much longer to achieve an effect than swirling, for which the rewards are immediate – just the way we like them! If you doubt this, just try your own simple experiment. Pour yourself a glass of wine – not too cold – and smell it. Then swirl it vigorously for several seconds and smell the wine again. From our own experiments, we found that swirling doesn’t cost anything and was more effective than a gadget. If you decide to get one, we’d love to hear what you think because, after all, the enjoyment of wine is subjective! Cheers! Nancy
Q: What to Serve at a Wine and Cheese Party?
Question from Becky: I’m planning a wine and cheese party and I wonder what wines and cheeses taste best together. Thanks for your help!
Reply:Hi, Becky. Thanks for writing! Wine and cheese parties are great fun and easy to do, too!
First, let me say that I think most people worry too much about pairing wine and food. Most wines and foods seem to taste pretty good together and the best combinations are personal. The other thing is that your guests will have lots of distractions by way of conversation and music, so they’re not likely to be terribly critical.
But, cheese can be a little tricky compared to other foods so, while there’s been almost no formal research into pairing cheese and wine, we have recommendations based upon experience.
If your friends are fans of big, red wines, then the guideline is the bigger the wine, the harder the cheese. Soft cheese and red wine may not be bad together, but if you’re serving some special bottles of red, pairing them with hard cheeses will probably show them off to best advantage. Those triple-cream cheeses we all love tend to coat your palate and deaden the flavor of your red wine. So, think about some nice, aged Gouda, an good cheddar or Parmigiano Reggiano.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t have any triple cream cheese! For those deliciously sinful cheeses it’s smart to go with high-acid wines, which are usually white, such as sparkling wine, Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. Goosecross Chardonnay has a high acid by California standards and is very nice with those cheeses too. Cool-climate whites (most of Europe, New Zealand) will also tend to be higher in acidity.
White wines will go well with semi-soft cheeses, too, and you’ve got a lot of latitude. If the cheese has hints of sweetness, then pick a fruity or slightly sweet white like Viognier, Riesling or off-dry Chenin Blanc so the cheese doesn’t make the wine seem sour. For those who drink red no matter what, put out fruity, low-tannin reds like a Beaujolais style or a soft Pinot Noir.
Blue cheese is one of the trickiest pairings, and if you want to serve a blue, if I were you, I’d do a taste test first. You’re usually very safe with sweet wines, but if you want to move into dry whites and reds, just give it a try first.
Goat cheese will taste best with a high-acid white, especially Sauvignon Blanc - it’s a classic!
So, I think it boils down to this:
* Among wines, whites are the most versatile with cheese.
* Among cheeses, medium-hard to hard cheeses are the most versatile with wine.
Note: In my own, personal taste tests here at Goosecross, I’ve found that there is no cheese that can get the better of our Chenin Blanc. I call it “The Terminator”! It stands up to virtually any style of cheese!
So, these are some fairly tried-and-true ideas, but nothing’s hard and fast. Our good friend, Barrie Lynn The Cheese Impresario, recommends that you limit yourself to five cheeses or everyone will get confused. She has some other great suggestions in our podcast interview, including serving cheese with olive oil or honey as a complement. There’s also a little more detail in this article on our website.
Regardless of what you decide, I know everyone will have a great time. You may serve certain cheeses and wines as pairings but, inevitably, your friends will go back to the cheeses and wines they like the best regardless of any guidelines and all these theories go right out the window! After all, if it tastes good, it is good! Here’s to a great evening of wine, cheese and friends!
Cheers! Nancy
Q: Oak Chips in Place of Barrels?
Question from James: I heard someone talking about using oak chips to make wine instead of putting it in a barrel. Can that be true? Say it isn’t so!
Reply: Hi, James! Thanks for writing! I can offer you the comfort of knowing that top-flight producers still age their wine in oak barrels. We certainly do here at Goosecross. I can also say that nothing does for wine what barrels do. Otherwise we wouldn’t use them.
However, barrel aging is extremely costly so I’m afraid, in order to be honest, I’ll have to disillusion you. It’s increasingly common for wineries to use oak chips in place of barrel aging.
The big factors in barrel aging costs are:
1. The barrel itself is expensive, with French oak running between $800.00 and $1000.00 per 60-gallon barrel. American oak barrels are around $400.00.
2. Labor: It’s much more efficient to manage wine by the 5000-gallon tank than it is by the 60-gallon barrel (rack that 5000-gallon lot once, tank to tank, instead of 83 times, barrel to barrel).
3. Evaporation loss (as much as 5% annually, depending upon humidity in the cellar): the evaporation helps the wine to age, but a 5% “angel’s share” of a 60-gallon barrel is about 15 bottles a year. Those are some happy angels! 
The loss also increases labor costs because we have to replace it by using the wine in one barrel to “top up” all the others to protect the wine from spoilage.
There are numerous barrel alternatives, such as oak chips and other flavoring devices, plus there’s also the option of lining the large tank with oak staves, also for flavoring. These options give the winemaker the opportunity to introduce more flavor and complexity without incurring such a high cost. It used to be that only low-end wineries, selling wine for under $10.00/bottle, employed these techniques but, according to Wine Business Monthly, the use is creeping up into wines that sell for $25.00/bottle, sometimes even more!
The thing is, these alternatives only flavor the wine. They don’t help it to mature. When we put the wine into a barrel it changes everything: color, aroma, flavor, concentration, etc. The evaporation and consequent oxidation inside the barrel sets off a whole series of chemical reactions that mature, integrate and soften the wine.
Awhile back, the French came up with a technique called micro-oxygenation that helps to soften the wine. It’s simply a matter of introducing controlled amounts of oxygen into the wine before or after fermentation. It’s used on different wines for different reasons and is one way of mimicking barrel aging.
I think we all have mixed feelings about these things. On one hand, you tell yourself that if the chips make an inexpensive wine more enjoyable, then why not? On the other hand, it certainly takes away from the romantic vision we all have of the dark, silent, oak-scented aging cellar.
It all goes back to this question of manipulation: how to define it and how to feel about it.
So, how do you all feel about the use of oak chips? If you knew a winery had used them would it prevent you from buying the wine?
One more question: do you think this kind of thing should be disclosed on the label?
