Aging Piemonte Wines

Video Transcript

Hi! I am Mark Middlebrook and I am here in the Paul Marcus Wines Cantina. And, in this segment I am going to talk about aging Piemonteze wines. The everyday wines of Piemonte made, red wines made principally from Barbera and Dolcetto. Generally are made to be drunk fairly young. Once you get them a year or two afterwards they often will you know hold fine for a year or two. But, they are not in general going to improve. There are a few exceptions, especially with Barbera, that is aged in small wood barrels by the producers. But, most of what you are going to see is wine to be consumed fairly young. The wines that really age well from Piemonte, in general, are made with the grape variety Nebbiolo. So, Barolo, Barbaresco, Ruero. The other Nebbiolo based wines. There are minimum aging requirements for each of these wines that the producers have to follow before they put the wine in the bottle and before they label it and ship it to you. And, that is intended to ensure that the wine has some evolution has started to develop and also very importantly, that the fierce tannins in Nebbiolo are not so young and aggressive that they tear the inside of your mouth up. So, when a newly released Barolo, Barbaresco will often be fairly, aggressively tannic. That does not mean you cannot drink it young. I would decant it, even several hours ahead works well. These wines evolve very slowly with aeration. Move it around the glass a lot to get more air into the wine. That will help get the wine more expressive and make it more pleasurable to drink. The other thing to do with a younger Nebbiolo is to, certainly to have it with food, any Nebbiolo in my view. But, in particular, to have it with something like a chunk of a aged cheese, like a Parmigiano Reggiano. Or, with a very meaty sort of dish. Particularly, braised meats work well with Nebbiolo. If you have the patience to wait, though, these things really are very much worth holding onto and aging two, three, five, ten, sometimes twenty or more years. I personally like to drink Barolo, Barbaresco, maybe starting around seven, eight, nine years after the vintage date. And, in a good vintage, a wine from a good producer will continue to evolve and get more complex and more enjoyable for you know at least ten, fifteen years after the vintage date and often more than that. So, stick them in a cool basement, a cool closet. The main thing you want to avoid is big temperature swings. It does not so much matter what temperature, although it should be under seventy, closer to sixty or sixty five is even better. But, the important thing is to enjoy these wines. And, if you order them young that works fine. Again, just decant them and have them with the proper food and you will have a good time.

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