Faq

Frequentely Asked Questions. Here below you will find the answers to the common doubts about italian wine.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

How long will wine keep on the wine rack?
How long will wine keep on your wine rack? There's no clear-cut answer, because so much depends on the specific kind of wine in question and on the storage conditions under which you are able to keep it. In fact, very few wines are meant for aging. About 99 percent of the world's wines -- particularly those from the budget shelf -- should be drunk up promptly, while they are young and fresh. Most wines don't mature gracefully with age but simply lose their fresh fruit and become dull and tired. They are best enjoyed within a year of purchase.
The few wines that do merit "cellaring" are the sturdy reds, ranging from French Bordeaux and Rhones to the high-end Cabernet Sauvignons from California and Australia and some of the best Italian and Spanish reds. These are the wines most likely to mellow into a memorable, balanced complexity, given careful aging under good cellar conditions.
Fine wine should be kept in a cool, quiet place, lying on its side so the cork stays wet. A constant temperature of 55F (13C) is strongly preferred, but hard to attain in a modern home unless you have a natural wine cellar or expensive wine-refrigeration unit. Lacking this, if you can't keep your wine below 70F (21C), I don't recommend trying to cellar your wines for longer than five years or so. (Keeping wine in the refrigerator is not recommended for the long term, because it's too cold, and the frequent vibration of the compressor motor may be bad for the wine.)

Investing in wine: Is it a good idea?
I'm sure you've read the stories about investors who've filled their cellars with California Cabernet and the Rothschilds' Bordeaux in hopes of making a killing. Maybe you've even thought about taking a flyer in this market, figuring you can always drink your losses!
But the wine-loving bulls of Wall Street to the contrary, wine as a financial investment is a very risky thing. Fine wine is far less predictable than more traditional investment commodities. What's more, the would-be wine investor also must consider long-term storage. Temperature-controlled cellaring facilities are critical -- either a naturally cooled or electric cellar unit capable of storing all of your wine at a constant 55F (13C). Even then, a power failure can wipe out your inventory; while a negative review from a major wine critic can impose a paper loss from which you'll never recover.
My advice? Anyone who views wine as a mere investment would be better advised to get into more traditional markets that hold a more substantial hope for success. But if you're investing in wine simply for your own pleasure, looking for your profits in tasting enjoyment, then you can hardly lose.

Labels: How to remove and save them
If you like to save the labels from special bottles of wine you've enjoyed as souvenirs, you've likely been frustrated by the wine industry's widespread move to modern labeling machines that affix labels with super-sticky glue.
Sometimes it seems that dynamite won't remove these things, but if you're keen on trying, here are a few tricks I've tried or heard of:

• Use very hot water and give the bottles a long soak. If hot water alone won't do the job, try adding a cup of ammonia.
• As soon as you remove the bottle from the hot water, attack the label with a hair dryer, which may help soften the glue.
• Try gently coaxing the edges of the label with a single-edge razor.
• Some wine-accessory shops offer a gimmick involving sticky-backed clear plastic that you place over the wine label, press down and peel..

Labels: How to understand them.
For the new wine lover, few things about fine wine are more daunting than the wine-bottle label. All that small print! All those foreign words and terms! But bear in mind that information brings knowledge, and lots of print conveys lots of information. Learn to decode the label, and you've armed yourself with the tools you need to be a savvy consumer.
Click this link to go straight to a straightforward, detailed tutorial keyed to pictures of labels from five different countries

Lead poisoning - is it a concern with wine?
There have been brief bouts of publicity in recent years over issues involving the presence of lead in wine (and other alcoholic beverages). One concern has to do with expensive decanters made out of crystal, which does contain a tiny amount of lead (apparently because it makes the glass extremely clear and bright). Some research suggests indicates that if you use lead crystal to store strongly alcoholic beverages (liquor) for a long period (months), they may leach a perceptible amount of lead into the beverage. Even in this case, the amounts involved are marginal, but since lead can cause brain damage, it's worth erring on the side of caution. So, if you use a crystal decanter, it's advisable to use it only for the evening, then put any leftover wine or liquor back into its original bottle for storage.
A second publicity flap came about around a decade or so, involving the possibility that the lead foil formerly used in wine-bottle "capsules" (the colorful foil or plastic sheath over the end with the cork in it) might contaminate the wine with lead. A widely publicized study showing startling amounts of lead in wine was flawed because the test protocol specifically forebade wiping the bottle neck clean before pouring.
In any case, this concern resulted in the entire industry abandoning lead capsules almost overnight, replacing them with aluminum or plastic or, in some cases, no capsule at all. If you have an old wine bottle (vintages in the 1980s or earlier) and it has a foil capsule, it's not a bad idea to wipe the bottle neck carefully before pouring.
One other related issue goes back to ancient times: According to an old story, possibly a legend, well-to-do people in the times of the ancient Romans became sick and sometimes died because the luxury dinnerware and goblets of the time were made of lead. And you'll also occasionally hear of dinner plates from Mexico and other places being banned for import into the U.S. because of lead content. Again, though, this won't normally be an issue with your wine.

Learning to taste wine:
Finding a local course
Unfortunately, it's not possible for us to keep track of (or evaluate) specific wine-tasting courses in all parts of the world and nation. But, especially if you live in or near a large city, it should be fairly easy to find a good course in your own community.
I suggest checking with two sources: The management of fine-wine shops is generally in touch with the wine-education scene and can often recommend good courses, and may even have course information posted on bulletin boards.
Also, local adult-education courses - most often run by community colleges or public-school boards - often feature wine tasting courses open to the public.
Finally, announcements of upcoming courses may be listed in calendars of events in metro or alternative newspapers and magazines.

Longevity of wine?
How to choose a wine that will last for 20 or 25 years, as a long-range plan to celebrate the 21st birthday of a newborn child or the silver anniversary of a newlywed couple? This is one of the wine questions I hear most often; but unfortunately, it doesn't have an easy answer.
The vast majority of the world's wines are meant for immediate consumption, not for aging; and most of the rare beauties that will hold out for 25 years require specialized storage at a constant 55F (13C) -- too cold for air conditioning but too warm for a refrigerator -- in order to show their best after all that time.
Luckily, however, one relatively affordable wine is almost indestructible: Madeira. This strong wine, fortified with brandy, was developed to survive, and even improve, during long ocean voyages from its island source off North Africa to thirsty markets in East India and the New World. Strong and warming, Madeira ranges from dry to very sweet, with burnt-sugar, earthy and caramel flavors, always with a firm, even steely acidity; and it will almost literally last forever, even under very poor storage conditions. What's more, Madeira remains surprisingly affordable for an ageworthy wine, generally ranging from $20 to $35 for a recently produced bottle sold in the U.S.
So if you're looking for a wine to hold for a celebration in the distant future and you don't own a wine "cellar," you can hardly do better than a Madeira for a wine that's likely to last.

Mad cow disease: Is it a danger in wine?
"I just read an article about Mad Cow Disease and French wine," writes reader Chuck R. "It makes me nervous there is a tiny chance I could go mad from my 1991 Chateau Mouton Rothschild. Please comment on how safe French wines are."
With my apologies for taking on a rather unappetizing wine-related topic, this is a fair question that deserves a straight answer. The short answer is, "Don't worry: The French wine you'll find on retail shelves around the world is safe."
If you'd like a little more information about the possible connection between French wine and mad cows, stick with me for another 30 seconds or so.
The underlying issue involves a wine-making trick called "fining," in which a protein is mixed into wine in vats or barrels to attract colloidal materials that could make the wine cloudy or hazy. These proteins fall to the bottom of the vats and the wine is siphoned away from them; in theory, at least, none of the fining material remains in the clarified wine. Traditional fining agents include a variety of odd substances, including isinglass (made from fish bladders), egg whites and, in some parts of the Rhone Valley in France, dried oxblood or blood albumen.
These old-fashioned practices are somewhat dying out in any case; most modern wineries, including virtually all larger wineries, now pass wine through bentonite (clay) filters rather than using organic finings. Because of legitimate concerns about the epedimic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), popularly called "mad cow disease," which became epidemic among cattle in Britain during the 1990s and which has been associated with the human brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the European Economic Community banned the use of oxblood for wine fining in 1997.
That's why a publicity storm arose in 1999 when French authorities "raided" 14 small wineries in the Rhone region near Avignon, seized several hundred pounds of dried oxblood and albumen, and confiscated 100,000 bottles of suspect wine.
The uproar prompted the Chinese government briefly to ban French-wine imports (the ban has since been lifted). Three United States senators also proposed a warning label be required on French wines, a proposal that apparently received no serious attention and promptly died.

In fact, experts offer the following reassurances:

• The only French wines implicated in the mini-scandal were made by tiny wineries whose products (labeled "VDQS" under the French wine regulations) are sold as generic table wine and rarely exported. None of the "better" wines labeled "appellation controllee" or "vin de pays" are believed to be affected.
• Even among the "suspect" wineries, no charges have been made that oxblood was actually used to make wine since the 1997 ban. What's more, only sporadic outbreaks of BSE - a reported 60 incidents in all French cattle since 1984 - have made it across the English Channel to the Continent. Quick action has apparently confined the epidemic to the United Kingdom.
• Finally, as noted above, "finings" don't remain in the finished wine, save perhaps in molecular quantities far below the level of tolerable risk.
• Ultimately, every consumer must make his own choice about what's safe. But I can't see any imaginable risk.

Non-alcoholic wines?
We're often asked about non-alcoholic wines for those who wish to avoid alcohol.
I'm sorry to say that the word on this is not promising. There are only a few brands of de-alcoholized wine, and after repeated tastings, I don't consider any of them satisfactory.
The two U.S. brands I have tried are Fré and Ariel. These brands are widely available in wine stores, but I've found the whites to be bland and the reds actively unpleasant. It's my opinion that three issues are at work here: First, the de-alcoholizing process is intrusive and seems to damage the wine, even though the makers claim otherwise. Second, alcohol is a key component of the customary flavor (and texture) profile of wine, and wines without it seem to be missing something; they seem lightweight and thin. Finally, to be blunt, these are inexpensive wines made from marginal grapes.
My best advice to people who want to take a break from wine is to skip these near-wine beverages and go directly to more interesting and flavorful non-alcoholic alternatives: Quality fruit juices, sparkling water, good coffee or tea.
Maybe it's my border-South roots, but I find a fresh, well-made iced tea, strong and unsweetened with a squirt of lemon or lime, to come about as close to what I'm looking for in wine as any non-alcoholic beverage can: It's fruity and floral, with natural tannins and crisp acidity, and that sounds almost like a wine-tasting note.