What To Do When...

...the wine is from an old vintage, is limited in production, and is from an area you really don't know much about. I posted this picture because it has three bottles of wine that can be seen on the table. Each one represents one of these topics.

At the forefront is a bottle of Barbeito 1960 Bual Madeira, a complex Madeira to say the least. On the nose, there are chocolate and intense coffee notes; on the palate this sweet Madeira offers prunes, hazelnut and caramel with hints of molasses on the finish. Although the wine spent much of its time aging in barrel, it’s still 48 years old. Will it hold up? The good news is that it’s Madeira and very little will cause it to become damaged. Madeira wine goes through a special heating process which allows the wine to become virtually indestructible. However, if this was a Bordeaux or Burgundy wine, you would want to take special care to ensure that it was: 1. stored properly in the last 40 plus years. Light, extreme swings in temperature, upright storage and not enough moisture in the air all cause stress on the wine and its container (the bottle and cork). 2. When you are ready to drink an older vintage wine you will want to take it from its lying position and gently place it in an upright position. This will allow some of the dregs to drop to the bottom. 3. You will want to gently open the bottle with as little agitation as possible. Moving the bottle around too much will move all the dregs and bring them back into mixing with the wine. And 4. you will want to decant in an attempt to completely separate the dregs from the wine.

Behind the Madeira is a bottle of Raymond Burr 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is no longer available but believe me was phenomenal – only the 1994 Raymond Burr overshadowed it. It had black cherry, currant, vanilla and chocolate aromas and flavors. It was densely structured with tannins sweetened from the oak aging. My mouth waters as I think about this wine. Production has always been extremely limited; even now the Raymond Burr Vineyards produce less than 3,000 cases of all their wines. What do you do when you find a gem like this with so few bottles available? Stock up! Once you know the wine is worth the real estate it will take up in your wine cooler, buy three, four or more bottles. The fun will be in tasting how the wine evolves over time. Just remember to enjoy the wine – don’t leave it for your heirs.

On the right the bottle with the dark label is the Aureo 2000 Sangiovese di Romagna from, you guessed it, the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. Not many people know about this region, let alone the great wines it has to offer. We do however know many of its famous towns: Modena (Balsamic vinegar), Parma & Reggio (cheeses), Bologna and the resort town of Rimini among others. Emilia-Romagna is Italy’s capital of gastronomy. Suffice it to say that where there’s good food, good wine will follow. The Aureo Sangiovese is aged 18 months in oak casks resulting in a deep ruby red wine with a large, earthy bouquet and a finish that is long and pleasant with dark fruits and earth. When you come across a wine from a region you know little of, take it as a learning opportunity. Ask the Sommelier about the wine and its origins, grab an Atlas or go on-line and do a search. Those little-known regions hold a treasure trove of great tasting wines and a chance to learn something new.