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From: ken@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Ken Birman)
Newsgroups: net.wines
Subject: Re: Nouveau Beaujolais
Message-ID: <616@gvax.cs.cornell.edu>
Date: Thu, 13-Nov-86 09:17:19 EST
Article-I.D.: gvax.616
Posted: Thu Nov 13 09:17:19 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Nov-86 02:09:31 EST
Reply-To: ken@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Ken Birman)
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY
Lines: 29

The wine is said to be one of the best in years, and some of it is already on
the market in New York.  It was released very recently.  Try the Fleurie.

The non-nouveau Beaujolais is a much better wine, though.  Your best bet
is to buy small quantities of the new wine for immediate (< 3 months)
consumption and then switch to the real Beaujolais when it comes out
in the spring, around March.  By then it will be better than the nouveau
wines, which fade fast, and could improve for the next few years in a good
cellar.

On that subject, the violent temperature shifts people have been discussing in
the context of cooling units wouldn't qualify as a "good" cellar.  Such rapid
and extreme temperature swings would destroy a good bottle in no time at all.

A good cellar stays between 55 and 60F and the temperature changes are never
sudden.  Wine in a warmer cellar, say 65, matures faster but may not reach
the same peak as if it has the amount of time it really needs (that is, the
tannin does die off, but the flavors may not mellow so nicely).  A fridge that
changes termperatures by 5 or 10 degrees in a few minutes is the worst thing
I can imagine for storing wine.  A closet makes more sense.

Most of my wine is in a basement as far from the heater as I could put it.
The termperature varies from 60 to 65 over the course of a year, but on any
given day it says pretty constant.  Anyhow, it seems to work fine.  My father 
has kept bottles there for years and they don't suffer.

The Swiss have the best solution.  They are required to have atomic bomb
shelters in their houses, so they keep the wine there too.  Insulated from
climate problems and if the shelter ever is needed...