12/25/07 Aging Large Format Bottles

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and on today's program we will be answering questions from the email. A listener writes "My wife and I received a magnum bottle of wine as a gift and we were told to keep longer than we would a regular sized bottle. Why is that?" Collecting large format bottles of wine  meaning bottles that are bigger than the average 750 mil. bottle - is fun. The larger the bottle chances are the longer that you can age it. Knowing when is the right time to open it is the tricky part. I usually rely on input from the winery. You can do this by calling or emailing them and asking for their recommendation. For example at my holiday open house I opened a 3 liter bottle. I did some research and decided that it was probably ready to drink now and certainly within the next few years. It was a 1990 Pinot Noir from Oregon. And since we were serving lamb stew I had great hopes. We decanted the wine just as we set out the dinner buffet. It had aged beautifully and evolved into a complex and delicious example of how large bottles often age most gracefully. The volume of the wine in the bottle allows it to age more slowly and thus longer. The patience and attention to your storage environment are without a doubt worth the effort. That and the celebratory feeling that is created when you open such a big bottle is truly worth it. Cherish your gifts of big bottles of wine. Be patient and take good care of them. If the wine was good to begin with chances are it will be even better in a few years. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.