ASK DR. WINE
Ask Dr. Wine your wine questions. He’ll answer them here.
Dear Dr. Wine:
I started collecting wine several years ago. Now that I have gathered dozens of cases, I'm not sure what to do with it all. I have had several bottles go bad while stored in my kitchen. I keep the majority in my basement, but am I doing enough to properly preserve them? What are the proper conditions under which to store wine?
E. C., Denver
Dear E.C.:
You should keep wine like you'd keep a teenager: cool, on its side, in the dark and free from vibration.
Your kitchen can’t fulfill those conditions. That means you're smart to store your wines in the basement—the northeast corner is best, with a year-round temperature around 55 degrees—free of vibrations from nearby freezers or woofers, with as much humidity as possible and in total darkness.
If you do not have a basement, find someplace—a closet, a small room—in the north end of your dwelling and insulate it. If nothing else, use an empty (and inoperative) fireplace, because the downdrafts will help keep things cool.
More than anything else, steady temperature matters. Severe fluctuations in temperature (say, in the 80s in the summer and in the 50s in the winter) prematurely age wine.
Self-standing, “refrigerator”-like wine storage units can solve a lot of problems for most homeowners.
Dear Dr. Wine:
Whatever happened to Cold Duck?
M.M., Denver
Dear M.M.:
It quacked. Thanks be to Dionysus.
Cold Duck, a mawkishly sweet pink sparkling wine, was very popular in the 1970s, when many of us didn't know wine and were into such drink (remember Annie Green Springs?).
The name Cold Duck comes from the German practice of mixing together previously opened bottles of wine—some red, some bubbles, some white—so that the wine wouldn't be wasted. The mix was called “kalte ende” or “cold end,” which in time transliterated to “kalte ente” (or “cold duck”).
If you're looking for a sweet sparkler, try a well-made Moscato d'Asti, such as those from Piedmontese winemakers Ceretto or Vietti.