SHARING THE SAME BOTTLE OF WINE WITH FRIENDS - COVID 19 STYLE - (4/16/2020)
I was pondering the idea on how to best continue drinking wine at home but without having to waste a bottle by not being to finish it by myself. But most importantly, I missed opening wines with friends, catching up on our week and spending a couple hours shooting the proverbial shit.
So began my many week trial on “perfecting” the ability to share wines with friends and with tips from Keith Herrick (based on his own experiences storing wine for his Master Somm training) I think I’ve gotten it figured out.
Follow below as I explain my process!
Week 1 - in home trials and a little help from some friends who lived close
I ordered some hot woozy bottles (5oz hot sauce bottles with a screw top lid) from amazon to try out my experiment.
I grabbed two bottles from the cellar, a white wine and a non sulfured red. I was mostly curious how the Morgon N would work without sulfur as it would most likely show the quickest degradation if exposed to air. I slowly poured it without a funnel directly into the middle of the bottle. Each wine bottle split into 5 different woozy bottles. I filled them right to the top. I gave two of each to one of my friend’s via contact less pick up (my porch) and instructed him to try them 5 days apart. I had three portions of each which I tried over the span of 8 days.
The Lapierre on day 8 tasted just as fresh and rich as day 1. The Buisson charles was pretty killer throughout the whole experience.
So I figured it was time to increase my range.
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2017 Buisson-Charles Meursault Vieilles Vignes - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault
Tasted it two times this week. First pour was straight vibrant lemon and pear with a powerful acid streak. As electric as a Tesla.
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Consumed a 5oz container 5 days later - acidity tamed a bit, lush bright fruit lapped like a gentle wave, really brilliant depth of citrus and stone fruit that gets sappy and coats the mouth. -
2018 Marcel Lapierre Morgon N - France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Morgon
2018 Lapierre Morgon “N” - split the bottle into 4 -5oz screwcap bottles. Then tried the last 2oz~ that night. Delicious wine. Spicy undertones with dark and wild red berries. Fleshy with acidic lift that drives the wine.
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Tried one of the 5oz bottles 72hours later - needed about a hour to open up. Same spicy mouthfeel, fruit still generous (a little less fleshy) but with broader and more tannic structure. Glad to see these lil 5oz bottles filled to the top holding up!
Week 2 - sharing wine among the San Gabriel Valley
I enlisted four volunteers for the next round of trials. Mixed it up a little bit and served it all to them blind a couple of days after bottling. Gifted everyone a little grab bag of Veleta goodies as well for helping with the experiment.
We got together on a zoom call one night and everyone popped their bottles. Another smashing success. All three wines needed air to really open up when poured. All the wines transformed with air.
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2014 Domaine Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Echezeaux Vieille Vigne - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin
Fourrier in lean years is da way to go. That candied exuberance is toned down and it’s just crunchy red berry fruit wrapped in a svelte robe of clean acid goodness. There is still that Fourrier ripeness but far more elegant in nature and intensity. This wine is drinking AWESOME right now. -
2016 Goodfellow Family Cellars Pinot Noir Heritage No. 8 Durant Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
the Heritage wines are single vineyard special selections. initially struck by how floral and spicy the wine is on the nose. Lilac, black pepper, stem, bright crispy red berry fruit. Like a Spatburgunder on steroids. @hungry.md mentioned a similarity to the floral notes on the more expressive N. Rhones. The wine is crunchy balanced sweet strawberry fruit but with a savory bite on the finish. Great complexity in its youth as the flavors play well. A lingering note of rose and spice dance into the finish. -
2018 Walter Scott Chardonnay The Rock Salt - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills
I opened the wine around 2pm for our 8:30pm consumption. Normally I’d try to be as gentle as possibly when distributing the wines into the 5oz glass but for this I poured it fairly aggressively into a funnel to try and let in as much oxygen as possible. Even then it wasn’t until the second pour around 9:30-10pm where the wine exploded.
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On the first pour it started highly acidic with vast amounts of lemon peel and citrus juice. But on the second pour the wine lengthens, suddenly that sharp citric note turns into deep wide swaths of pear and peach with just an underlying hint of lemon rind. The wine coats the mouth with that crystal clear white orchard fruit with cool acidity propping up the backbone. The richness of the fruit blows deep into the finish. I don’t think I’ve had a young chardonnay anywhere near this price point with the weight this wine had.
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Wish I got more than a 6 pack (especially with everyone begging me for a btl
) but @walterscottwines did graciously bless this gentle soul with a magnum!
Week 2.5 - Rivers Marie webinar
One of my friend’s volunteered his 07/09 Rivers Marie Old Vines for the webinar we had on wineberserkers. He dropped it off on my porch. I transferred the bottles with an aggressive funnel (since we were drinking it that night) and I dropped it back on his porch shortly after.
Both bottles as expected tasted great.
Now it was time to take the show on the road
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2009 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Old Vines Summa - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
oh my. Gorgeous bright crystal clear crunchy cranberry fruit. Elegant and precise the fruit glides effortlessly down the ol gullet. There’s a background of growing herbal spice to compliment that gorgeous clean fruit. The acid is clean and subtle melding perfectly with the fruit and enhancing its primary accessibility. While the 07 was broad and a little clunky, the 09 was right in the zone. Excellent. -
2007 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Old Vines Summa - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
the wine is still quite burly and coarse. Has an unruly energy bouncing around that shows its best days are still ahead of it as everything slows down and fully integrates. Big mouthful of red crunchy fruit, sprinkle of tannin and a bit of savory sweet earth. There’s something about the depth of fruit on these old vines thats hard to replicate.
Week 3 - 2012 Rhone Horizontal
I’ve been posting about my efforts on Instagram and I received some tips re: transferring the wine. The most notable tip was from the aforementioned Keith, who linked me to the work of Jim Rollston, MS. Jim had used an oxygen meter to measure dissolved oxygen in different methods of splitting off wine. The one he had the most success with was using a 5 feet long small tube to siphon off the wine. Keith used it to great success during his master somm training. So i ordered a tube off amazon and began my siphoning experiments with water. I used gallons of water trying to perfect the method so I wouldn’t lose more than a few drops of wine.
Another thing that occurred from my posting on Instagram, is that a few of my friends that do not live in Los Angeles wanted to participate in this. So I offered to bottle it up, wrap it up and ship it off to them.
Now we come to the first issue with the Hot Woozy bottles. The bottles themselves have really crappy lids with pretty crappy seal. It’s a flimsy paper piece on the cap for the seal. I was going to run low on Hot Woozy bottles so I decided to try something different, I ordered 4oz bottles with rubber cone caps with a tighter seal. The same type of bottle I see shipped around for bourbon samples. Lo and behold my fear was correct. The Keller that I sent leaked from the pressure/wine as I filled it to the very top. Fortunately, it had zero impact on the wine itself.
We consumed the wines roughly 5 days after I bottled them. The participants all agreed the Keller still tasted incredible. One person even left half of it for the next day and he stated it was even better.
Every one of the reds needed air to really open up. The same person who saved the Keller saved some of the reds and stated all of them showed better the next day. Since I got to taste a little bit of it after bottling, I could confidently say, the wines tasted nearly identical from when I first popped the bottle.
So I told the guys, let’s try again the next week when I get the new bottles in.
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2012 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
the king of Northern Rhone - 2012 Allemand Reynard - full stop incredible wine. It has ever angle covered. Balanced but full. Seamless in its texture. Hard to find flaws in the wine. Ample depth for the wine to age for awhile but giving great enjoyment now. Top of the heap in 2012. -
2012 Marie et Pierre Bénetière Côte-Rôtie Cordeloux - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
All the aromatic deliciousness of Benetiere on full display. Cracked black pepper, violets, savory red fruit glide out onto the nose. The wine has a chunky mouthful of dark savory fruit highlighted by a punch of acidity to tamper down the growing dark robe. As the night went on it picked up olive and meat notes to mix into the fruit. Give it plenty of air to led the tannin soften, it really got spectacular at the end of the night. -
2012 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
monster of a wine. Huge. Lots of oak on the nose and palate in the beginning. Then it started to integrate. That oak melds into the background. The ripe fruit is plump - generous, supple and delicious. It gains broadness without gaining sweetness. Saturating the mouth. @aewang said it became even more expressive and pretty the next day. Very nice wine, but if you’re gonna open one give it a lot a lot of air -
2012 Weingut Keller Hubacker Riesling Großes Gewächs - Germany, Rheinhessen
first started out a bit one note but within a hour this intense level of minerality picks up to match the tropical dense fruit on the mid palate. Then as the night went on the acidity starts to blend in as the wine becomes waxier and sweeter on the plate as the ripeness and power comes out with a big punch. The flavor absolutely overwhelms into the finish as lemon curd and spice bring an added savory and saliva inducing element. What a wine. ⠀⠀
Week 4 - even more experimenting
I got the new bottles in, siphoned them off. I experimented with filling to the very very top and just a little below the top. Didn’t seem to make a difference as none of the wines leaked. But with my experiment I blinded them on the 1996 Pontet Canet. I wanted to try this bottling system with an older wine. I figured 23 years post bottling would be a good enough test. The wine tasted great!
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1996 Château Pontet-Canet - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
I was prepared for the wine to be faded as the CT notes were not particularly favorable but this bottle showed well. Fully integrated at this point. Fruit is still there but secondary notes of cedar and dirt are starting to gain a majority sharehold of the flavor profile. The nose is perfumed of dark fruit, spice and cigar. Seamless on the entry as the tannins are tamed and the acid has interwoven itself deeply into the finish. Nice wine. -
2017 Xavier Gerard Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
these 2017 are ready to go out the gate. Lots of available and expressive fruit. The Gerard is filled with plush dark fruit, mineral, and a chewy meaty backbone. The texture is classic Gerard, seamless but with weight that drives it on the mid palate. In a vintage like this, it’s almost a touch glossy. The nose is fragrant and filled with sweet fruit and lily. That touch of Viognier in the wine really accelerates the nose. Another tasty vintage. -
2018 Walter Scott Chardonnay X-Novo Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills
what else needs to be said that I haven’t said before. The x novo from @walterscottwines is the best chardonnay made in America. Not only that it’s probably the best chardonnay period at the price point. The 2018 is one of the best vintages I’ve had from them, really dense concentrated wine with that hallmark reduction/flint and incredible length that lingers long into the finish. If there’s a vintage to load up on it’s definitely this one from them. I regret not getting a 3L during the futures offer.
It’s become a bit of a weekly thing now with this group. We have a really fun one coming up tomorrow that I’m excited to share later.
I’ve seen a lot of people start to embrace this method (with the same bottles) for their weekly zoom tastings with friends, so I’m excited that it has caught on. I don’t think anyone’s gone as hardcore as siphoning off with a tube… but I don’t think I’ve seen any ship bottles yet either. Mostly all consumed the same day, so a funnel probably isn’t a big deal based on my experience.
If you have any questions about the method, please let me know! Hope this helps you all enjoy some wines with friends 
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