Raymond Gleug: Old wines and new beliefs
On Sunday past, my entire belief system was shaken to its core. My darling wife, the enigmatic Madame G, informed me that life could emerge from nothing.
“Spontaneous generation,” she continued, “it was proven in the Middle Ages- if you left a piece of meat to rot, maggots or worms or flies would inevitably emerge despite there being no actual living matter”.
Sensing my scepticism, she confirmed that this phenomenon had been suspected by no less a figure than Aristotle and was subsequently proven to be true by experiments in the Middle Ages involving meat and jars. So, it turns out you can get something from nothing. My mind was near blown till I checked out Wikipedia and found that Pasteur had begun to dismantle the theory of spontaneous generation and then Irish physicist, John Tyndall, finally disproved the notion entirely. The jars were not as airtight as believed and microscopic particles and spores could attach themselves to the meat, thereby spawning new life.
All of which reminds us not to judge the opinions of older people or previous generations too harshly. People believed the world to be flat for a reason. They also believed that wine got better as it grew older. Only true for very high quality wines with lots of tannin and even they will generally start to deteriorate after about 40 years because, like our medieval meat jars, the corks aren’t completely airtight and oxidisation inevitably begins.
Medium quality wines can age well for about five years but the vast majority of wines are designed to be drunk straight away- I really should get tore into the contents of the wine cellar here at my lovely home, Rose Cottage.
One wine which has been ageing for 6 years and will benefit from a couple more and which won’t quite break the bank is today’s WINE OF THE WEEK, the complex, supple and well-structured 2018 Glorioso Reserva Rioja (£12.95, the Wine Society). A full-bodied, exuberantly juicy palate with plenty of berry and cherry flavours which are nicely balanced by soft tannins before a lingering finish with hints of earthy spices and black pepper. One for a spicy chorizo stew with tomatoes and peppers.
Of course, most of you just want a decent drop to have sometime soon, preferably tonight, or even right now in which case today’s second recommendation, the tart, tangy and fabulously fragrant 2022 Casillero del Diablo Chardonnay (£7, Tesco) should fit the bill. Theatrically ripe lemon and grapefruit flavours mingle with backnotes of hazelnut in this upbeat and delightfully creamy drop. Seafood or salads.
I mused to my Madame that people used to believe in spontaneous combination too so, given the belief systems of the time, it probably wasn’t a great stretch to accept spontaneous generation. Whereupon, she informed me that many scientific theories which have since been debunked were the best guesses available based on the limited knowledge of the time and were in fact the portals of discovery so don’t rule out spontaneous generation just yet, smartypants. Maybe, I’ll put that Casillero del Diablo Chardonnay away for a while. Just in case. Till next week, tipplers, sante