Laden with fruit, soaked in booze and wafting sweet spice aromas, the Christmas cake is the epitome of festive indulgence. Save on a Decanter magazine subscription this Christmas But some, such as the ‘beautifully aged’ Le Ragose, Marta Galli 2008, spend up to five years in French oak barrels, gaining well-integrated notes of ‘autumnal fruit and Christmas spice’. Once the wine is lying quietly in the barrel room, the time it spends in contact with the wood will ultimately decide the prominence of its spicy oak characteristics.īy law, Amarone della Valpolicella wines must be oak aged for a minimum of two years. Many producers use a combination of new and older oak, such as Leeuwin Estate’s Siblings Shiraz 2016 from Margaret River in Australia, which was aged in 30% new oak to get the right balance of its ‘sweet Christmas spice tones’. The age of the wood will also affect the strength of spicy oak influences in the final wine an old, used barrel will not have the strong flavours of a newly toasted one. ‘More heavily toasted barrels lend a wine sweetness’, said William Kelley in his guide to oak barrels, suggesting that sweet Christmas spice notes might come from wines aged in oak with a heavier toast grade. ‘A barrel of 225 litres will have a much stronger effect on the wine than a foudre of 1,000 litres or more,’ explained Sarah Jane Evans MW in her Ask Decanter article.īarrels are categorised as having light, medium or heavy toast – a process that involves a fire being burnt inside the half-finished barrel. Secondly, the size and ‘toast’ of the barrel have an impact. Tasters noted ‘a smart use of oak, with cedar and Christmas spices’ in Babich’s Irongate Cabernet Merlot Franc 2016 from Gimblett Gravels, New Zealand, which was aged for 14 months in French oak barriques. September releases 2022: full score table.Rhône 2021 score table: top white wines.March releases on the Place de Bordeaux 2023.September fine wine releases on La Place de Bordeaux 2023.It may not be the best wine you’ve ever tasted, but good enough to serve to guests without them knowing the bottle was corked. In just a short amount of time, you can save your night with a package of plastic wrap and a little white lie. To our surprise, the plastic wrap worked! We would definitely forgo a corked bottle during one of our tastings, but would use this trick again in a bind. He said he would “definitely drink it again” on his own volition. We asked him to try a glass of wine and tell us what he thought about it. He didn’t know about our little experiment. So, we called over our tech guy, Klaus, who is a wine enthusiast that would be able to tell if the bottle was tainted. Verdict: The cork taint was gone and the wine was perfectly drinkable.Īlthough we were sure the wine tasted better, we wanted to see if it was still good to someone who hadn’t tasted the original. We waited another few minutes and poured a glass. Poured the rest of the wine from the second decanter into the third decanter with a fresh ball of plastic wrap. Verdict: It smelled like a good bottle of wine but still had a slightly musty taste. Poured the first decanter into the second decanter with a fresh ball of plastic wrap.Īfter a few minutes, we tried a glass of the twice-decanted wine. Kept the original glass, for comparison, and poured the rest of the bottle into the first decanter. Loosely crumpled a sheet of plastic wrap into a ball and placed it into the first decanter. Opened a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, poured a glass and realized it was corked. Plastic wrap is made up of Polyvinylidene Chloride, a derivative of trichloroethane, which acts as a sponge to absorb the TCA. When a bottle is “corked” or suffers from “cork taint” it contains trichloroanisole (TCA). Let’s start with the “science” behind it. We were skeptical, but decided to give it a try. But, what if you could make a bad bottle of wine drinkable again? We did some research and came across the idea of using plastic wrap to save a corked bottle. In the past, when we’ve come across a tainted bottle we would pour it right down the drain. You open it, pour yourself a glass and are immediately overwhelmed by the musty odor. You get back to your place and, thankfully, you have one bottle left in your pantry.

In an attempt to keep things going you, invite them back for a glass of wine.

Unfortunately, dinner has come to an end and it’s time for the check. You’re on a date and things are going surprisingly well.

Plastic wine decanter