So I have a birthday coming up in a few weeks and a family member was gracious enough to send me a bottle of 1976 Ridge Monte Bello and a 1976 Ridge Geyserville as gifts. My experience is rather limited with wines older than ten years, thus I need fellow berserkers’ advice. I am aware of the Durand corkscrew, is it necessary or will a traditional one work? A friend told me to use a coffee filter to ensure I remove the sediment, but would that not introduce some outside flavors in the wine? Also, should wines of this age be decanted or simply enjoyed through the evening from the bottle? Any help is appreciated!
If you are going to filter through something, use unbleached cheesecloth.
Use an ah-so to open it, if it gets stuck, use a waiters corkscrew in conjunction.
Stand them up for a week and decant over a candle, rinse out the bottle of sediment and immediately return the wine to the bottle thru a funnel.
I read this quickly and though you were recommending the Kurniawan method, until I realized you were suggesting returning the same wine to the bottle.
I would stand them up for 3 days before hand, and pop and pour. The 76 MB should be light in color and have an almost burgundian nose to it. It will fade very quickly if you decant it. Enjoy!
Both excellent wines.
I also say don’t decant. Best to follow the wines the whole time in the glass, it’s more interesting that way. And, as mentioned, too much air from decanting could kill the wines before you get a taste.
Stand them up to settle for several days. Try to not disturb the wines too much when pouring so the sediment doesn’t get mixed back up into the wine. The best way to do this is to pour all the glasses at one time, tilting the bottle once and doing all the pours, instead of going back to fully vertical between each pour. This is what you would do if you have enough people that they each get one pour. (With fewer people, do a round of pours like that, let the wine settle, then when everyone is ready do the second round like that.) With a particularly great older wine with a lot of sediment I’ll then filter the last bit.
Andy,
I’ve seen you recommend unbleached cheesecloth before, and wondered, “Why unbleached?”
A bit of Googling turned up this:
BLEACHED Cheesecloth is used extensively in the Food Service Industry for basting, straining and filtering during food preparation processes. Bleached Cheesecloth has been processed to remove the impurities of natural cotton fibers such as seed particles and oils. Bleached Cheesecloth is processed to meet the medical grade specification for non-sterile gauze products. Bleached Cheesecloth is NOT a CHLORINE BLEACH. Non-Chlorine Bleach does NOT contain chemical binders.
UNBLEACHED Cheesecloth is generally not used in food preparation as it is in natural cotton state and has not been Bleached to remove the impurities. Too many cotton seeds and “pepper trash” in the material for use around food.
Source: http://www.raglady.com/detail_CC50__66__cheesecloth_cotton_washable_white_bleached.html
Your thoughts?
Thanks,
Bob
What Wes Said.
As for opening, like Kris said a good “Ah So” with a waiters corkscrew as a back-up in case of a cork broken in half. I actually have an old screwpull, not a lever model, with an extra long screw that I use.
Thanks for everyone’s advice. I will report back on the wines within the next week or so.
Having had the 1976 Geyserville about 6-7 years ago I recommend popping and pouring as was preveiously suggested. This wine may deterioriate quickly with air as ours did. Nice at first then downhill.
I had a well stored MB last month, and it was still in its prime. Certainly not light, and no sign of fading. If you have a good bottle, you will have an amazing wine.