Wine at home ages quicker

Wine at home ages quicker

Wine ages 4 times quicker in the home than in the cellar. This is the recent discovery made by Fondazione Edmund Mach –Istituto di San Michele all’Adige

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The major research centre regarding Italian wine confirms what producers of great ageing wines already knew though personal experience: domestic storage is a killer for wine. In fact the comment by Professor Fulvio Mattivi author of the study published in “Metabolomics” leaves no room for doubt <<Six months in an apartment make the wine reach a chimical age which is equivalent to a two year refining period in the ideal conditions of a cellar>>.
In the end my grandfather Giovanni Colombini ‘s advice is still valid, advice he gave his Brunello clients <<wine is made for drinking , not to be looked at>>.

Mattivi’s pubblication, entitled “L’influenza della conservazione sull’età chimica dei vini rossi”, underlines, with figures at hand, how domestic room temperatures determine the «forming of composits never seen before, born from the union between tannins and sulphur dioxide accelerating the ageing of red wines». To get these results 400 bottles of Sangiovese ,in dark glass and sealed with real corks, have been monitored. 200 of these were kept in a cellar at the Istituto di San Michele all’Adige where the conditions are ideal (temperaturres between 15 and 17°C, humidity at 70%, darkness). The other 200 were stored in conditions similar to an apartment – laying down and at a

temperature of about 20-27°C. After 6 months the chimical analysis showed great differences

between the two groups of bottles, and those kept in warmer conditions had a “chemical age” two years ahead of the others. Also the colour of the home kept wine, showed a more “orangy” colouring (pinotine)which comes from the union between tannins and sulphur dioxide.Those who like myself produce Brunello have often seen the negative effects of domestic storage.Bottles containing oxydised wine and with corks that are completely dry because stored standing up in cabinets in the dining room. It is difficlut to explain to clients that Brunello,like the Riserva version, and that

from great vintages cannot survive in conditions which are not ideal (cellar or climatized cabinet)so they must drink it,at the first important occasion without regrets. I have often had a discussion with clients wishing to buy a bottle for the birth year of their child, so as to keep it until his or her degree or wedding . To these guests I have given only one suggestion: better get Vin Santo, and for a Brunello producer who hates sweet wines, this is really an enormous effort!