Hello,
I am planning to have a slightly old vintage (1999~2003) village level burgundy and was wondering how people generally handle those.
How long should I keep it upright before serving, and how long in general should I bottle breathe the bottle?
There is no general rule to follow. Some burgundy wines have little if any sediment, some have more. Stand ing the wine up for a day or two will not hurt it and may help. If these are village wine they will not need much breathing. If these are top of the line wines from 2003 they may need an hour to open up.We had a 1999 village wine at my offsite storage and it was ready to go 5 minutes after the pour.
No good burg from 99-2003 will fall apart soon after opening, so donāt stress. I see no harm in keeping them upright, not decanting, and pouring gently. But if you want to decant, go for it.
Some ā99ās are still quite firm, and might get harder with air, so I wouldnāt decant them hours in advance.
2000 has been a a vintage to drink young since itās release, but is still drinking beautifully.
Have fun!
Stand upright for 1-2+ days.
Open 4-5 hours in advance, taste a sip ā¦
put the rest back into the bottle, then wait ā¦
(tissue on top)
You can decant 10 min before serving, but not necessarily ā¦
Thatās how I do it for 15+ years ā¦ and the wines show perfectly ā¦
Since I remember and purchased those vintages on release, they cannot be old. I will only add to the advice above that I find any cloudiness in older Burgundy to mute the aromatics and red fruit elements I prize. I therefore always decant very carefully if I see fine sediment in the bottle, regardless of whether it has been stood up in advance or has just been pulled from the rack. Iād much rather have 4+ glasses of prime wine than 5 glasses of muted regret.
Cheers,
fred
Agree with decanting if there is any danger of sediment ā¦
however IĀ“d do it only after a certain time of airing (opening well in advance) ā¦ the wine will be much more expressive that way ā¦
Agree
I never decant older Burg.
Since you are already planning to have these bottles, why not stand them up now/at earliest convenience? Will give more time for whatever sediment is there to settle. Better yet is slotting it into a wine cradle if you happen to have one.
I donāt know that decanting is always necessary, but I would definitely stand it upright for a day or two and pour very carefully.
if thereās fine sediment, that can really mess up the wine, making it astringent. Iāve been served too many faintly cloudy old Burgundies that people have carried to my place or to events and the wines were not enjoyable because of the sediment.
I drink a good bit of Burgundy from that era and generally decant them. They certainly throw a sediment. Not as much as Bordeau or Vintage Port, but there definitely is some sediment. But, as you can see. others do not decant them. Doubt it matters that much until the last glass or so if you have stood it up for a while and are careful how you pour.
As for time, I often bring wines from this era to tastings of my monthly wine tasting group and for friends for dinner. For my wine tasting group, the decanting is done before I leave the house. After decanting, I taste a bit of the wine to make sure it is sound and then pour the wine back in the bottle and put a closure in it. Typically, it takes about an hour in rush hour traffic to get to the dinner and then we drink Champagnes and other whites before getting to the reds. So, it typically is about 2-3 hours between the time the wine is decanted and the wine is drunk. Generally is fine.
When I bring the wine to a friendās house (or at my house with wine friends), I typically open the wine and decant it at their house (or my house). So, with the same hour or so before we switch from Champagnes and whites to reds, mostly it is an hour or so between the time the wine is decanted and drunk. Generally is fine.
If I have the wine at home with just my wife, I typically open the wine and decant it at home about 15 minutes before I drink it. Generally is fine.
IMHO, the key to how the wine will taste in my experience will have a lot more to do with the producer than decanting time, etc.
I find the sediment on Burgundy and Barolo to be worse than the sediment of Bordeaux. I.E., a lesser amount can be more problematic and take more time to settle.
+1
I usually transfer them to a serving decanter to de-sediment the wine. I like to serve soon after and let it open up in the glass.
I am not nearly old enough that 1999-2003 qualifies as āold vintageā
Nothing to fuss over except to decant for sediment.
I always decant Red Burg over 9-10 years old off of sediment if I can and generally like to let it have some air unless I have reason to believe a wine is fragile (rare). A double decant in advance can serve that purpose if I am patient to let it evolve in the glass on pouring or 30-60 minutes in the decanter is good to start. So many wines are a little grumpy right after opening. Been doing it this way for well over 20 years now. But I understand other people may have different preferences.
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Also can we ban further use of the phrase / acronym IMHO? I have never seen it used to to convey a truly humble message. At least by my understanding. And it is in any case superfluous. I am sure I have used it in the past, so I am no innocent there, but I now regret it as I now find it suggestive of grating puffery and grandstanding even if that is not the writerās intention. As a litigator and therefore professional writer / speaker advocate, I certainly would never use that phrase or seek to have someone else use it for advocacy.
IMO or IMHO are definitely superfluous because itās understood itās your opinion since you are the one stating it. Especially when the sentence starts with āI think.ā That said, I know I definitely have used IMO before.
Has anyone had a really enjoyable 03 recently? the ones I liked are less enjoyable than they were 10 years ago and the ones I didnāt havenāt become any more likeable. I have somewhat lost my faith.
2001 is a widely praised vintage and Iāve had a huge amount of pleasure but the great majority should not be kept much longer for full enjoyment. 02 might yet get there but many remain foursquare. 2000 is doing fine but nearly all were better 10 years ago. 99 at the lower end is ready and they can be utterly wonderful when they are not corked; the proportion of bad corks is huge, unfortunately.
Sorry, Iām not answering the question, to which the answer is that far, far away the most important thing is the temperature of service which should not under any circumstances exceed 15C/59F. Warm burgundy might as well go down the sink. I would just open and pour 99s, the sediment wonāt do any harm. With 00 and 01 Iād be a bit more careful, decanting wonāt do any harm if the wines are cool.
IMHO, no.
These are not old burgundies by any stretch of the imaginationāthey are burgundies in their prime. For village wines, I donāt have anything to add to what has already been said. If we were talking premier cru or above, I would be suggesting more air for 99 and 02, depending upon the wine and producer.