The Ideal Wine Company were
slightly amused to learn recently, that experts were dismayed to find that a
150 year old wine recovered from a shipwreck turned out to taste mostly of salt
water.
Wine needs to be stored properly
As suppliers of fine wines from
some of the most famous wine making regions on the planet, the Ideal Wine
Company has never, not for one minute, underestimated the importance of
storage.
No matter how old your vintage,
you need to store it properly if you want to ensure it provides you with the
out-of-body experience so common of fine wines, when you finally crack it open.
As a recent discovery proved, store wine incorrectly and you’ll end up with a
bottle destined to turn your stomach.
More than a hint of salt water
The Telegraph
has reported that experts were disappointed recently when they cracked open a
vintage they found in the wreckage of the Mary-Celestia.
They suggested that the bottle, which produced a cloudy yellow liquid, had a
bouquet which consisted of sulphur whilst it left a distinct aftertaste; laced
with more than a hint of salt water.
The Mary-Celestia was a steamship that sank off the coast of Bermuda in
1864, at the height of the American Civil War. That means that this vintage was
150 years old when it, along with five other bottles, was discovered and
retrieved by two divers back in 2011.
Why did a 150 year old bottle of wine taste so bad?
This leads us to ask, why did a
150 year old vintage taste so bad? We’ve often been told that the older a wine
is, the better it is. Furthermore, Paul Roberts,
the master sommelier at the ceremonial uncorking of the wine in Charleston, the
capital of the US state of West Virginia, noted that he’s had shipwrecked wines
before that have retained their heady flavour.
Yet
this particularly bottle was discovered inside a locker positioned in the bow
of the ship. Essentially it wasn’t stored properly. That allowed sea water to
seep into the vintage, ensuring that its taste soured as it aged.
Cautionary tale
Use
this story as a cautionary tale. If you buy a fabulous Burgundy or a scintillating Australian wine
from the Ideal Wine Company and you plan to keep it for a long time, store it properly. Who knows what’ll happen to it
otherwise.
