Is Centuries-Old Wine Still Drinkable?(realclearlife.com) |
Is Centuries-Old Wine Still Drinkable?(realclearlife.com) |
It does raise a question - for wines that a vintner wants to age for a really long time, why would they use UV-transparent glass bottles and cork stoppers? Surely a glass bottle that's opaque to UV light would be better, as would a non-porous stopper. Even in the mid-19th century they had access to those things. Dipping the entire bottle in wax would do the job. I've never seen it done though (not that I'm any sort of wine expert).
Also, corks seem to have a life of their own, letting in some oxygen into the bottle.
UV seems to be not much of a problem for them since it all sits in the basement.
We also check our bottles regularly and replace the corks every 25-30 years, which gives us an opportunity to monitor the quality of the wine.
---- Presumably they are checking its 'drinkability' among its other qualities!