Can you age wine in a laundry room?

Last week when I was packing up my grandmother’s house, I had no big aspirations when combing  through her wine storage. In her case it was a cupboard in the laundry room. My grandmother was a fan of Costco deals; (no judgement – there are some great deals!), and mass produced Whites which she would gleefully dunk ice cubes in. I didn’t have high hopes of finding any special first growth Bordeaux or Napa Cabernets lurking behind cleaning detergent.

And why is it usually those ‘icon’ wines which we associate with aging? Stephen Spurrier once told me that one can evaluate a wine’s finesse and age ability based on the 3 g’s. I corrected it to 4…. you will see why.

Grapes – the quality and also the type of grape will all contribute to a wine’s age ability. Good acidity and concentration of fruit is key as well as the ability to have good structure via tannins, the grapes in a blend etc.

Grounds- the quality of the grapes will depend on the quality of the vineyard . Pinot Noir from Grand Crus sites in Burgundy will have more age potential than those grapes which go into an average villages wine.

Guys/ Gals ( I added in Gals – it’s 2020) – the actual winemaker’s intention and cunning with how he/she produces the wine.

Based on the 4 g’s, less than 10% of wines are actually made to improve with age. Most Rose, light Whites, basic red blends and those wines sold at the lowest prices at the supermarket should all be drunk within a year it has been bottled. Generally only the most expensive wines and those particularly from France, Spain and Italy, are specifically designed to be stored for a few years or even decades after they are put on the market.

As well as the 4 g’s – a wine’s storage conditions are equally as important when contributing to its age ability. You could have the most incredibly made wine but if you store it in a environment which is too hot ( 13c or 55f is ideal) then you can quicken the age. Having around 75% humidity is ideal as it will stop the cork from drying out and oxygenation happening. Light, smells and sound vibrations can all taint the wine and affect its ability to evolve gracefully. The pulsating washing machine; combined with the enthusiastic dryer, in my gram’s laundry room, were making my odds of finding an interesting well aged wine exceedingly slim.

And yet, even if a wine had been well made and stored perfectly, it always comes down to personal taste in wine. Just last week I went to a Grenache tasting for International Grenache day. I fell in love with a 1998 gnarled vine Grenache from the Barossa made by Charles Cimicky. For me I didn’t mind that the red  fruit had taken a backseat and instead it was mainly rocking savoury spices and umami chicken broth nuances. I desperately wanted a plate of my grandmother’s paprika chicken or goulash to appear and be the perfect hearty companion. Whereas the gentleman next to me thought that the wine was past it. Equally he adored a younger, more powerful Santa Barbara Grenache which with all its tannin, alcohol and power – I found pure infanticide to drink. Different strokes for different folks.

HOWEVER – a common mistake is for people to sit on wine for far too long and it goes well by its sell by date. My dad is definitely a culprit in this. In the 1970s he was able to buy first growth Bordeaux for £2.76 a bottle at auction. Wonderful right?  Whilst my mother attended the Rolling Stones 7 times during that decade in LA…. I envy their Seventies youth. However, where my dad got the short straw was by bundling away his vinous babies for two decades too long. Every Christmas I am allowed to take out a couple of bottles from his Seventies stash and every year inevitably they get chucked down the kitchen sink… The world renowned wine writer, Jancis Robinson, had a   New Year’s Resolution for 2020 which I thought was brilliant. She was resolved to drink more. Not quantity wise. Although, it is 2020 –  so no judgement if that did become the case. Her initial resolution though was to drink more of her wine which she had saved for ‘special occasions’. Unless you are a wine collector and are purely collecting wine for investment reasons – then you are accumulating wine presumably to share with others. Or just to enjoy during a contemplative moment on one’s own.

The other common mistake is when people buy expensive wine and drink it straight away – especially Italian wine. I remember a good friend buying a bottle of Gaja Barolo for a couple hundred pounds for his wife’s birthday. He kindly shared it with her and I at the time he couldn’t understand why he had paid soo much.  It was very tight, tannic and high in acid – he found such little pleasure in it. I hadn’t seen the age otherwise I would have warned him that the wine simply was far too young. Putting the wine into a decanter for a couple of hours and serving it with some Italian cuisine helped but the true rich potential of the Nebbiolo grape I felt had not been given a chance.  Most Brunellos can easily age 12 – 15 years and need that time to come into themselves and not be awkward, petulant teenagers.

So with all of this in mind…. was I actually able to salvage anything vinous from my grandma’s laundry room?  Well yes!! And what was even more surprising were the incredible wine styles and wine history which I learnt from those bottles.

Check out the 3 videos above to see just what I found and how amazing this laundry cupboard turned out to be!