In Chinese culture of white wine, many people like old wine, thinking that it has richer benefits for heath, and some old wine even has the title of "liquid gold".

1. What is an "old wine" that has stood the test of time

Not any wine can be "the older the better, the longer the better". In the wine industry, professional sommeliers generally regard 10 years as the dividing line between new wine and old wine. The appearance of stale aroma in wine is a sign of aging wine, and it is the result of the polymerization of phenolic substances in wine. And there is another product of this chemical reaction—the sediment at the bottom of the bottle. The current sediment is begun to appear in most wines after 10 years of aging, and thus 10 years has become a watershed. In fact, very few fine wines on the market with aging potential.

2. There is also a way to open a bottle of old wine

Since generally there is precipitation in old wine, it is best to keep the wine to be opened in an upright state 3-4 days in advance. At the same time, avoid shaking as much as possible, which is conducive to the sediment falling to the bottom of the bottle. Wines over 15 years old need to be kept upright for 7-8 days. The special bottle opener for old wine is called "BI-Lame", that is, a "double fork" bottle opener. The specific operation is as follows:

（1） First remove the bottle seal and wipe the mouth of the bottle with a clean cloth.

（2）Check that the cork is intact. If it fits tightly with the mouth of the bottle, you can use the two steel pieces of the old wine corkscrew to draw a circle along the edge of the cork. Then slowly insert the cork into the gap between the bottle and clamp the cork.

（3）Hold the corkscrew in your hand, unscrew the cork gently, and finally wipe the mouth of the bottle again.

3. Decant or not for old wine

In most cases, old wine does not need to be decanted. In order to reduce the contact area of ​​wine with air as much as possible, the decanter specially used for sobering up old wine is often in the shape of a slender strip with a small base. The process of pouring the old wine into the decanter is quite particular. Provide a little light source under the wine bottle, then choose a suitable transparent angle, and start the process of pouring wine extremely slowly to avoid the spread of sediment. During this period, it is necessary to monitor the movement of the sediment at the bottom of the bottle at all time to ensure that the sediment flows to the bottleneck and stops.

4. Old wine for cork

In Bordeaux, many top wineries usually provide cork replacement services for customers who buy old wines from the winery. However, at the beginning of this century, the service was almost entirely discontinued due to the high risk of uncorking older wines and the emergence of counterfeit wines.

Alright, I hope the above information is useful for knowing old wine.

Lydia Zhao POINT PLUME