Cellar dweller

The deep dark secrets of cool wine

by Thor Iverson

UNCORKED

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So how much wine did you lose this summer?

I'm talking about the heat, of course. This summer, with its stifling heat, took a toll on all of us. It also took a toll on wine. Anyone who keeps a few bottles -- or a lot of bottles -- around the house knows what I'm talking about. Letting wine age is a good thing, but the kind of temperatures we've just been through can bring that "good thing" to a screeching halt.

I've heard horror stories this summer from friends and acquaintances about leaking bottles, ruined carpets, and wine after wine being poured down the drain. Heck, I even lost a few bottles while I was on vacation. And those lost bottles all had one thing in common: they weren't protected from the heat.

Heat does nasty things to wine. The most obvious change is physical: as wine heats up, it expands. Eventually, it starts working its way up the sides of the cork and gathers inside the capsule (the metal or plastic sheath over the bottle's mouth). As the temperature rises, this expansion can continue until the wine actually starts seeping out of the capsule. (Hence my friend's ruined carpet.)

But the more insidious damage is the kind you can't see. As we all learned in high-school chemistry, heat increases the rate of chemical reactions. In wine, there are "good" reactions (the kind that help it age into something more interesting) and "bad" reactions (the kind that make it smell and taste funky, oxidized, or vinegary). Heat speeds up both of them.

One might be tempted to conclude that heat is a great way to speed up the aging process. Unfortunately, the effects of quick "aging" are not beneficial; the complex aromas and flavors that develop in an aged wine do require time to evolve. Heat is no substitute: it just kills the wine before it has a chance to blossom. With heat damage, a chardonnay might taste like burnt nuts. Or you might open a 10-year-old Bordeaux to discover a stale tobacco taste rather than the majestic, complex bottle you expected.

So what can you do to protect your wine? Well, you could quickly drink it up the next time the temperature rises. But the simplest, cheapest, non-intoxicating way is to find your "cool room": the best location in your house or apartment for storing wine. Usually, this is in the basement or in a non-insulated back room, but sometimes it's just a closet. What you're looking for is low light, low disturbance (from traffic and from vibration), and -- most important -- low temperature.

What temperature is right? Well, 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal, but most houses or apartments aren't usually that temperature (if they are, there are bigger problems than wine to address). Under 70 degrees is mandatory, however. And the temperature should be fairly constant; swings of more than a degree or two during the day create a "pistoning" action as the wine expands and contracts, which can wreak havoc on corks (and eventually loosen them, leading to oxidation).

If you want to keep some wine around but don't have a "cool room," you should acquire a cellar. There are two kinds of cellars: passive and active. A passive cellar is a cool space built with no active cooling unit; it could be an unfinished room, a corner of the basement, an unused garage, or even a subcellar. Simple cellars can be built fairly easily; the better and more efficient the cellar, the more construction ability required. Those interested in passive cellars should locate a copy of How and Why To Build a Wine Cellar, by Richard M. Gold (Sandhill Publishers).

An active cellar is an appliance that uses a cooling unit (often paired with a humidifier) to re-create classic European cave conditions. For collectors of expensive or rare wine, active cellars are essential, as they're the only way to guarantee the safety and proper development of a wine. Active cellars can run from small, refrigerator-like units that hold 25 bottles ($200 to $400) to massive, ornate furniture-like pieces that hold hundreds of bottles and sell for thousands of dollars. Of course, very few people have collections worthy of such extravagance.

Why not just leave some wine in the fridge? If you're thinking that, stop. Short stays in the fridge (less than two weeks) are fine, but anything more and the combination of vibration and too-cold temperatures will "shock" your wine into submission.

If the work necessary to construct a cellar, or the money necessary to buy one, don't seem worth it (after all, you just want to drink some wine, not rebuild your house), then maybe the best option is to reconsider your buying strategy. Some wines do well in the heat -- big reds like cabernet sauvignon and syrah, mostly -- and some don't (sparkling wines, lighter whites like chenin blanc and muscat). But the only way to protect wines completely from the summer heat is not to buy them until you need them. Let your retailer (who should have temperature-controlled storage) dish out a few choice bottles per week, and buy nothing for cellaring.

Meanwhile, here are a few wines both delicate and forceful, which can be consumed in weather both hot and cold.

1996 Molmo Franco Dolcetto d'Alba Bricco Zancai ($10.99). Earthy, forest-floor, pine-needle flavors, with a heavy finish of cedar and bark. There's a little fruit there as well, but this is fascinating for its atypical flavors.

1990 Königschaffhausen Baden-Kaiserstuhl Königschaffaur Vulkanfelsen Riesling Spätlese ($11.95, Brookline Liquor Mart). Sorry, no room for a tasting note. If there were, I'd say that this bone-dry, pure-mineral, coconut- and kiwi-scented autumn-leaf-flavored wine is one of the bargains of the year. Cellar it longer, though.

1996 Château de la Chaize Brouilly ($14.99). A medium-weight Beaujolais for immediate drinking or a few years of age, dense and fruity with an unmistakable jam-like character. Needs to be chilled, but can be served with just about anything edible.

Thor Iverson can be reached at wine[a]phx.com.

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