DailyDirt: Old, Old Wine, Goes To My Head…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
It’s actually pretty easy to fool tastebuds when it comes to aged wine — a more expensive-looking bottle or just a good story is sometimes enough to make people think a wine tastes better than it does. No one trusts wine that comes out of a plastic spigot on a box, but if you tell people you’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to store wine for years, some folks are willing to cough up thousands of dollars for the chance to drink it. If you’re a knowledgeable wine drinker with a lot of disposable income, check out a few of these aged wines.
- A Portuguese winemaker tried aging some wine at the bottom of a lake for just a few months. The resulting wine tasted different (much better?) from the same batch of wine aged normally — so maybe there will be more wine aged in lakes soon. [url]
- Bottles of wine found in centuries-old shipwrecks can fetch insane prices at auctions, and apparently the wine doesn’t turn into vinegar. Wine aged in barrels under the sea seems to produce a better wine more quickly, so who’s going to create a Kickstarter project for a water-filled wine storage cabinet? [url]
- Residue from ancient wine — about 3,700 years old — could provide hints into the early history of winemaking. The oldest known wine is about 5,000 years old, and it probably didn’t taste that much like modern wine. [url]
- Not every old bottle of alcohol found in an old shipwreck turns out to be a winner. Some 170 year old champagne survived time and was still drinkable, but it wasn’t exactly worth the wait. [url]
After you’ve finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.
Filed Under: alcohol, beverages, drinks, shipwrecks, taste, wine, winemaking
Comments on “DailyDirt: Old, Old Wine, Goes To My Head…”
Wine aged at sea
I have read (according to cheese makers in Quebec, Canada) that cheese aged deep under water tastes better than the same cheese aged on dry land. Sorry, I don’t have a reference — it was years ago.
Love your site. Keep up the good word!
… Martin Potter
Hmmm…
Maybe it’s the pressure…
…after all, the water is being kept out by the containers…
Re: Hmmm…
more likely the low and steady temperature, and eliminated air exchange.
Re: Re: Hmmm…
Could also be something to do with light filtration. Down that deep, the light spectrum is restricted.
Re: Re: Re:
It’s totally blocked by those depths and by barrels anyway,
but external pressure raises internal pressure by tightening
a barrel and reducing normal outgassing.
With bottles the cork is pushed in until pressure equalizes,
which is not far due to the small air space; but creates a
large amount of additional pressure.
So, pressure applies to both types of container.
Reduced temperatures at depth may be a factor but is probably
less significant than pressure; the unique factor.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Some places have pretty controlled temperature so I tend to agree that it isn’t really an issue. I’d go for pressure and lack of air or rather oxygen. At great depths much less dissolved oxygen is there to promote oxidation. Even if the barrels are technically sealed some air always find its way in through the pores and inner veins. Remember that wood was originally a tree with a series of little vases (pipes if you will) so I’m going with that too. Remember even in sealed bottles of soft drink the gas inside eventually finds its way out.
Still, all environments could be artificially simulated for each separated component to see which one influences the process the most.