Wine

Brian and Maddy are back. I spent a bit of time this morning making sure things were alright in the flat. Gotta try and be a good flatmate especially when there are loads of boxes of wine in the living room.

I bought a fuckload of old bottles at auction for cheap. Nobody bid on them because the chances are they’re vinegar. I’m not gonna drink all of them, but the bulk of them aren’t good enough to sell individually, and are probably vinegar. There will be one or two bottles that are a true delight. I already had a decent hit with a 1995 Versant Royal. Most of them though are corked. I’m moving slowly with them as once I get a hit I don’t open any more for a few days, but … I have now poured about 8 bottles down the sink, giving up on them entirely, some corked to retching, others borderline but still horrible to drink even after lots of aeration.

Every bottle I’ve opened so far has looked bad on the outside. I’m getting through the crap first. Low level, mold, bad labels. The Versant Royal looked like death. It hadn’t aged very well but it was wine not TCA taint. I’m growing very familiar with the smell and taste of that taint now. It is an interesting way of rolling the dice and I’m learning what to look for now.

I watched some frenchman on Instagram telling us he had drunk a bottle from 1789. Such things can happen. But without knowing how it was stored I’m starting to think that anything before 1996 is suspect. I’ve got some 2006 bottles that I’ve got high hopes for. Eight of them, a Grand Batailley Pauillac. I’m scared to open one in case it is fucked. My 1994 Mouton Cadet I’ve cracked 3 bad bottles in a row out of twelve, but it isn’t a big wine either way.

So yeah I’m gonna set up a wine rack and for the next few years you’d be clever to invite yourself to dinner, but give me a month or so more working slowly with my cellar tracker to establish what is vinegar to sell because of pedigree, vinegar to open check and either lucky glug or chuck, and wine. A Coravin system would help but the fuckers want over £300 so I’ve established a system with an aerator and a sieve and a load of different jugs, to get enough air into it without making bad washing up. It’s depressing though, when you know it is bad, it smells bad, and your aerate it just in case but it just remains bad. These once high quality things are worthless.

At Chateau Coutet they had found a bottle under the floorboards sealed with a glass ball from 1750. The bottle and the seal decorated with a heart had been made to go together and close hermetically. It is a priceless bottle. Open it and it might be good wine still, but hopefully nobody will ever know. Better it remains unknown and present, a challenge to the ease of these corks which eventually kill their bottle. I wish these guys were sealed with glass.