Arnt Egil Nordlien
Arnt Egil Nordlien
Over the last couple of years I made a little experiment. The idea began when I found a source for loads of cheap Italian mature wine. The downside was that most of this wine was the type of wine that you are told has no storage-potential. For the seller, the bottles were almost impossible to sell. So I did some research behind my purchases and selected products that were made by producers believed to be good at the time the wine was produced. Type of wine or grape and vintage has had considerably less impact on my choices. The result of all these experiences is that there are hardly any people who have drunk so much bad wine than me. But another result is that all these experiences are not at all consistent with the prevailing opinion of what one can read. By studying literature about different Italian wines ability to age one will find an astonishing agreement in what writers believe is ageworthy wines - and what is not. I do not have any evidence to say the following: but I guess the probability is high that there is a lot of copy and paste of other people's opinions in most books that deal with the subject. In other words, what might begin with ignorance is eventually underlined as actual wine-cultural misinterpretations. This means in other words, the grapes that nebbiolo, sangiovese and aglianico have a storage potential. Everyone knows, because we all have tried. But how many knows if a white Orvieto can be stored for 50 years? According to a unison corps of writers a white Orvieto can not be stored for 50 years. But how many have tried? Probably none. I have now bought a 50 year old white Orvieto. Took well care of it. Gave the bottle the appropriate catering, before it was carefully opened and consumed. Conclusion: White Orvieto should definitely not be stored for 50 years. As mentioned, there is hardly anyone who has drunk as much bad wine as me during the last couple of years.
But out of all these experiences I also remarkably often find wines that completely breaks with the unanimous author-voice to a point that it is almost shocking. Shockingly, especially when these attitudes have been established not only internationally, regionally and locally, but also down to the local wineries own understanding of their products. I do not think many growers in the Aosta will agree with me when I say that petit rouge is a very interesting grape in a storage perspective of 30-40 years. The same can be said about schiava. A perfect bottle of '55 Sandbichler auslese from H.Lun proved to still be on the young side. Another great bottle of '71 Kolbenhofer from J.Hofstätter was amazingly delicious drink now. Today few if any makes serious Schiava. Why not? Have the producers lost faith in the grape? How?
The understanding of wine is largely influenced by literature on the subject. Wine is a big field. Few, if any, have the opportunity to put themselves deep into all the different aspects of the wine-field. We have to trust what we read. So an extensive copy and paste-attitude may cause improper understandings among consumers. I find indications that this may be a widespread problem in wine-literature. It is most probably not limited to the understanding of italian wines and a couple of years of a very limited experience done by me.
PS! This article have been translated from norwegian by the fun of google translate and quickly checked by me. So I hope the translation is understandable.
But out of all these experiences I also remarkably often find wines that completely breaks with the unanimous author-voice to a point that it is almost shocking. Shockingly, especially when these attitudes have been established not only internationally, regionally and locally, but also down to the local wineries own understanding of their products. I do not think many growers in the Aosta will agree with me when I say that petit rouge is a very interesting grape in a storage perspective of 30-40 years. The same can be said about schiava. A perfect bottle of '55 Sandbichler auslese from H.Lun proved to still be on the young side. Another great bottle of '71 Kolbenhofer from J.Hofstätter was amazingly delicious drink now. Today few if any makes serious Schiava. Why not? Have the producers lost faith in the grape? How?
The understanding of wine is largely influenced by literature on the subject. Wine is a big field. Few, if any, have the opportunity to put themselves deep into all the different aspects of the wine-field. We have to trust what we read. So an extensive copy and paste-attitude may cause improper understandings among consumers. I find indications that this may be a widespread problem in wine-literature. It is most probably not limited to the understanding of italian wines and a couple of years of a very limited experience done by me.
PS! This article have been translated from norwegian by the fun of google translate and quickly checked by me. So I hope the translation is understandable.
