Trogdor the Chefinator

Wine Q&A with your host Trogdor the Chefinator...

I noticed in a couple of posts that there were a couple of questions that I rudely did not answer. I attempt to do so now. Please forgive the Chefinator.

Courtney said...
Wines are fun. How do you feel about Barolo or Rioja? Two personal favorites of mine... just sayin'.

Ladyfiona said...
Please! A "care and feeding of" for wine and the unopened bottles thereof. For example- a common practice I've seen among non-wine people: After you open a bottle and have a glass, do you put the bottle in the fridge to "keep"?



Coutney my dear, I have to say you have actually touched upon 2 of my personal favorites. The funky graphite nose on a Barolo...just awesome. Problem with most big Italian wines (IMHO) is they take for f-ing ever to open up. I mean open one when you get up in the morning and drink it around 9:30 p.m. BUT if open they are inviting, lush, complex, ripe but not over-ripe, wonderful bottles of wine.

Riojas...just good drinking wine. Tempranillo is a fantastic and versatile grape. Especially when blended with a little Grenacha. But that's just a personal thing with me. Delcious. They can be easy everyday drinkers what we call "quaffers" of serious no f-ing around complex, fruit-forward bottles of wine.

I salute you in your choices. Which ones do you drink? I might have some suggestions for ya. We shall have to pull a couple of corks together some day.

M'Lady Fionna: As to care and feeding. Once a bottle has been opened, white or red, it has started its slow slide into the recycle bin. You can however prolong on life-supoprt wines that have been opened and not finished. (never heard of such wine anomolies myself, but I will adopt your premise for this question.)

There are any number of interesting wine products out there to prolong life of oxidized wine.
The 2 I know most intimately and utilize most often are:
Inert gas infusion and
Air removal from a sealed environment (read that: a corked bottle)

One works about as well as the other though there are arguments on both sides. Use either with confidence that your red wine will last (depending on the grape, country of origin, blend, vintage, yadda yadda yadda) about 3-5 days with 5 pushing it.

And your white will last somewhat longer because you are keeping it chilled. (No need to keep the red cold.)

As to that, a rule of thumb about wine temps ESPECIALLY whites is the colder it is the less you taste of anything. So there comes a point where you are drinking cold, wet, nothing. The closer a white comes to "room-temp" the more the flavors will come out. That can be a good (hopefully) or a bad thing.

I personally wont drink a white that feels like it was just poured over ice and let it come down in temp a bit before tasting it.

Keep'em frosty and they all do in fact taste the same.

I like to drink wine that is about the temp of a bottle of water that you pull out of the fridge and drink 20 minutes later. You might not like that and that is fine as well. But all the tastes and smells come out then.

Ok, I hope this was in someway helpful to you people out there in the ethers of the blogsphere.

Keep the questions coming and I will answer, when and if able.

I remain your humble and obidient,
Trogdor the Chefinator

posted by Chef @ 5/06/2006 04:47:00 PM