Storage

The manner in which your wines are stored is extremely important if they are not to deteriorate early.

Ideally, they should be stored in a dark humid place with a constant temperature of around 53-55° F, lying on their sides with the the wine fully in contact with the cork. Conventional wisdom says that any air bubbles in the bottle should come into contact only with the glass.
If a cellar is available, then this is probably the best place to try and approach these ideal conditions - providing there is nothing remotely resembling a central heating boiler located there. It is a constant mystery to me why, in our overcrowded island, where space for just about everything is at a premium, housebuilders do not provide cellars in newly built houses - in otherwise unused space that does not affect our visual landscape. Other European countries (eg Germany) do it, so why not us? Given that the ideal environment is not always available in a modern centrally-heated British house, it remains an ideal to which we should strive to come as close as possible.

To be avoided at all costs is temerature fluctuation - even if the ideal 53°-55° is not possible, you should at least try to ensure temperature stability. The absolute temperature affects evolution of the wine - the warmer it is, the faster it will develop. The wrong temperature can damage wines directly as well; if wines are too cold, they may freeze, and this can force the corks from the bottles, allowing wine to escape and oxygen to enter the bottles, oxidising the wine when it thaws. Too warm and the wine expands, also risking the cork being forced out, or wine escaping past the cork. Also excess heat can cause some of the more volatile compounds, which contribute directly to aroma and taste, to be lost.

Light is also a problem, and can affect the flavour of wines; this is why many wine bottles are dark in colour. Under no circumstances should wines be stored in direct sunlight, the heat of which can allow wine to seep past corks.

Humidity is also important, as the cork should not be allowed to dry out, as it may shrink, and the seal with the bottle and the wine may become imperfect, allowing oxidisation.

It is of course possible to get carried away with all this - being realistic, in a modern house, a good compromise is a wine rack in a cupboard under the stairs, where the temperature is reasonably constant in the range 10° to 20°C. This is fine for wines which are going to be stored over a fairly short period - say up to 3 or 4 years. Alternatives include special temperature-controlled cabinets, although these are expensive.

Serving and Tasting

Serving

Before a bottle of Beaujolais is opened, it is wise to stand it upright for several hours, or preferably overnight, to enable any sediment to settle to the bottom of the bottle. If the wine has thrown a heavy sediment, then you may wish to decant the wine. Natural sediments are quite harmless, and occur especially with wines that are unfiltered or lightly filtered. As to whether the bottle should be opened some time before drinking the wine, this depends on the wine itself. Lighter fruity Beaujolais wines do not really need time to breathe, and the fruity aromas and flavour will be evident as soon as it is opened. Older and heavier Crus, however, need some time to allow aeration of the wine before serving, as the flavour of a Cru Beaujolais can develop quite markedly over time it is exposed to air, initially improving, then fading. Allow an hour for a heavyweight Cru such as Moulin, Chénas, Juliénas, Morgon, with perhaps half an hour for the other Crus. Again this is a generalisation, but the best thing is to experiment for yourself. If you don't have time to allow the wine to breathe properly, the process can be accelerated by decanting, using a decanter in which the wine is exposed to a larger surface area in which to come in contact with air.

Serving Temperature

I have included in the tasting notes on our website wherever possible recommendations from the growers about the temperatures at which their own wines should be served. Generally speaking, the lighter Beaujolais wines should be served at somewhat lower temperatures than the heavier Crus, and as the wines age, the temperature at which they should be served rises. Also, stronger wines are served slightly warmer than lighter low-alcohol wines. These are of course just generalisations, and will not apply in every case; they may however be used where no other information is available.

Generally speaking, Beaujolais is a light fruity wine and can be served somewhat cooler than many other red wines. Chilling a light Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages, or Chiroubles is quite acceptable, however the heavier wines from these appellations, and the other Crus, are intended to be drunk at or near room temperature, and if they are chilled then the aromas and flavour will be hidden. Perhaps 12-13° is appropriate for lighter Beaujolais, some Beaujolais Villages, and lighter Crus such as Chiroubles, rising to maybe 17° for mature heavyweights like Chénas and Moulin.

Always allow the bottle to reach the serving temperature naturally - leave it in the room in which it is to be served for some hours before consumption. Forced heating or cooling is to be avoided.

I was given a tip about the correct temperature at which a red Beaujolais should be served, by a vigneron for whom I have great respect. This is that where no specific guidance for a particular wine is available, a good thing to do is to take the alcoholic strength in %, and to serve at that temperature in °C. So a wine with 13% alcohol should be served at 13°C.

Keeping

If you don't finish the bottle in a single sitting, it will oxidise if left for more than a day or so, so it is really best to drink it all the day it is opened. There are devices which extract oxygen from partially consumed bottles, and these generally work quite well in terms of their ability to prevent oxidation and prevent the wine from going off, however the aroma of the remaining wine will suffer.

Wine Problems

It can be most disappointing if something is wrong with a bottle of wine – although problems are thankfully rare. We have some tips here about how to deal with problems and perceived problems, not all of which are real.

• Corking – industry statistics indicate the inevitability that a small percentage (some say 1%) of bottles of wine will be corked. It is the most common wine fault, and is caused by harmless bacteria growing on the cork. We like to think that our range will suffer less than most, as the wines are relatively young, and the makers tend to use better than average quality of corks, consistent with their desire to produce a quality product. Nonetheless, corking will occur from time to time. There is no mistaking a corked bottle of wine; a mustiness on the nose, and a normally quite unpleasant taste results. There is nothing to be done except throw it away, and contact us for refund/replacement.  This fault is not to be confused with small cork fragments floating in the wine when it is opened. For those interested in this subject, there is a particularly good website worth visiting - www.tainted-wine.co.uk.

• Oxidation – normally caused by exposure to oxygen for too long. This occurs when wine is left open for several days or improperly stored. The wine may discolour, lose its aroma, and taste flat, but will probably still be drinkable.  Nothing can be done once this has happened, but it can be avoided by the use of a vacuum device once opened (or better still drink it all the same day it’s opened).

• Ullage – this is the loss of wine from the bottle by evaporation or leakage. Evaporation is a perfectly natural effect, whereas leakage is less desirable but is almost inevitable with age. Signs of Ullage due to untimely leakage include wine seeping round the cork, protruding cork, and stained labels. It can be caused by allowing a bottle to become too warm, when the wine expands, forcing the cork out of the neck of the bottle, or causing wine to seep.  If the time between such loss and consumption is relatively short, the wine can still be quite drinkable and may not appear to have suffered. However, if the wine cools down again, contracting, air can be sucked back into the bottle causing deterioration. The best advice is to ensure the wine is stored out of sunlight and in a cool place (see storage advice earlier on this sheet).

• Very slight effervescence in still wine – this is not really a fault, rather it is often a result of slightly incomplete malolactic fermentation when the wine was bottled.  The flavour and aromas of the wine are in no way affected. If the wine is left to breathe, this will usually disappear before consumption, but if not, a very quick and simple remedy is to apply a vacuum to the bottle for a few minutes – very easily done using one of the wine-saving devices such as a Vacu-Vin. Five minutes or so with one of these installed and the effervescence is gone, and the wine can be enjoyed normally.

• Sediment – This is normally not a problem at all. Both red and white wines can throw a sediment after a number of months in bottle. These are tartrate crystals, and are completely harmless. The flavour and aroma of the wine is normally not affected in any way by these, and in fact they can even be considered a good sign, generally occurring more frequently with wines that are either unfiltered or only lightly filtered during the manufacturing process, where the aromas and flavours are better preserved.  It is recommended that the bottle is stood upright the day before opening in order that the sediment may settle to the bottom of the bottle, and decanted if desired.

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