Tasting notes often describe how a wine tasted on “the second day.” However, almost never do they describe what happened to the wine between the first and second day. Thus, rarely do I find such information useful. After being opened, the wine could be…
Left in the open bottle,
Left in a corked bottle,
Left in a decanter,
Left at room temp,
Left at cellar temp,
Refrigerated,
Topped with inert gas,
Sealed under vacuum…
The possibilities are so varied that without the taster specifying the storage method, the “second day” note is almost useless to the reader.
So, should it be a de facto standard that tasters specify how a wine was stored if they are going to comment on its evolution over multiple days?
Yes. I’ll note, usually, that the remaining wine was decanted into smaller bottles with no air space; the
“second” night might not be the very next day, but the next time I get to the wine.
You’re asking for information that isn’t commonly provided in tasting notes. For example: serving temperature, glassware, decanting and if so for how long, etc. Not to mention how was it stored and sourced.
The notes on how a wine tastes over the course of an evening and also on subsequent days is valuable information and hard to get from professional reviews.
Not a joke at all. How an opened wine is stored for 24 hours can make a big difference, so I find it useful if I’m planning on consuming a wine over two days.
All the person is trying to say is that the wine developed in some notable way over time. The specifics don’t matter. I can’t even begin to imagine a more pointless exercise than trying to replicate the conditions of someone else’s experience in hopes of getting the same result. Never gonna happen. It’s hard enough getting two people to react the same way to a wine two minutes after it was opened even when they’re sharing the same exact bottle.
As Tom mentioned, this little item here kind of dwarfs (at least IMO) virtually every other potential variable, at least when it comes to mature wine.
When I see notes describing wines like (for example) the '82 or '86 Gruard Larose as being “fully mature”, I’d like to know whether the taster bought the wine on release or off WineBid in 2010.
I just leave it in a bottle. I don’t worry too much about putting it back in a wine fridge etc.75% of what I drink is better day 2 and I usually note if I remember on CT.
I’ll come down in the middle and say that (1) it’s great if and when people add details like this, but (2) I wouldn’t expect 99% of people to do this with regularity, and I wouldn’t criticize anyone for failing to do so.
+1, though I experience “lots” of red Burgs that, IMO, need more time/are too young…and white Burgs, too…I’m really trying to say when I say/note this is that the wine improved (usually notably) with exposure to oxygen/air. It means, to me, the wine was too young, as I think of aeration as promoting development in a similar way to aging, albeit less gradually. I think when I write such notes I always say…after being left in open decanter or put the rest back into the bottle. (I rarely pump up wines anymore and never put them in the fridge or into half bottles, as I am trying to see what oxygen does to them, ie, whether there is better wine than I tasted there that needs time…or whether I got it all the first day, and…
After all these years of trying, it still mostly surprises me when a wine is better the next day. (And, I’d say that almost all DAuvissat Chablis, unless aerated tons the first day, are “better” the second or third…just left in the bottle. I’ve convinced several skeptics of this with wines 10-15 years old!)
For me, it means ‘active neglect’, no gas, no cork. I want to see what happens as the wine pushes to the edge. Sometimes I go into day 3 with reds. I routinely revisit the previous days wines before moving on to new bottles. Some wines get finished before they have a chance to ‘fall over’. The biggest surprise are the Rose that sit around in boxes for two weeks waiting for photography after being opened and tasted. I find most of them are still remarkably fresh.
Different motivations are worth considering. In an interview I did with Morgan Twain Peterson, he mentioned there is a correlation between how long it takes a wine to ‘fall over’ after opening to how long it may age. Leaving a bottle open 24 hours shows how it evolves. Using gas, vacuum or reducing head space are great ways to preserve what you experienced the day before and the results are probably more attributed to the system used, than the wine.