Wine women and fashion
A fashion party is not complete without some French wine and cheese. I really adore the aroma and color of red wine.
One of the enduring reference points for gauging a wine’s quality and value is its estimated ageability. Estimated is the operative word here. Unlike most food and drink, wine can improve for years. What do you smell and taste, and do those flavors seem well-integrated? Does the wine offer more complexity than it did in its youth, or less?
Today’s wines are made, with rare exceptions, quite differently. Red wines especially are far riper, sweeter and generally oakier than ever. They have been put through a malolactic (secondary) fermentation (to soften the acids). A variety of other palate-softening, flavor-enhancing, fruit-forwarding tricks is often applied. Most wines are sold in glass bottles and are sealed using a cork. Storing wines is a tricky and laborious job. Wine is a natural, perishable food product. Left exposed to heat, light, vibration or fluctuations in temperature and humidity, all types of wine, including red, white, sparkling, and fortified, can spoil. When properly stored, wines not only maintain their quality but many actually improve in aroma, flavor, and complexity as they mature.
If you aren’t going to drink the bottle of wine tonight, you might consider some form of wine racking system to keep your wines at their peak of flavor. Home wine racks are used for short term storage for a dinner party or a week’s worth of wine or for young wines that will be enjoyed within a short time frame. A wine rack is a storage device that holds bottles of wine horizontally, or at any angle where the wine remains in constant contact with the cork, and are often found in wine cellars.
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