Hi to all

I use a technique that I first heard of in the Wine Advocate(RP) for judging younger red wines. I open the bottle and pour out a glass. The bottle sometimes get an hour open on the first day. I taste the first glass over 90-120 minutes. I vacuvin the bottle and leave it at room temperature. I then take a glass and revacuvin the bottle daily or after a couple of days. Often the big reds are much better on day 2.

This week I opened the San Vincente 2000 Rioja. I had a healthy pour and followed the same procedure. This wine had good fruit, but with dry tannins on the finish. Day #2 was sweeter, but the tannins were still there. Then I waited 2 more days. I expected the wine to be vinegar, but it was still alive. The fruit had receded somewhat, but the tannins were still there.

Will it always be like that? Do tannins oxidize in the short term differently than they age in the bottle. Is this a sign that the fruit may not outlast the tannins?

Thanks for helping.

EDJ

Good questions. If you find the answers, you have a career as a wine critic ahead of you.

I'm not sure how tannins soften, whether by oxidation or not, but time does the trick.

tannins soften by both time and oxidation is the answer. The change is a different chemical process, with oxidation mimicking the effect of the chemical effects that take place over time.

Bascially, you get softening with out the added complexity by exposing to oxygen.

Thanks Tilly,

What about the fruit fading while some of the tannins were still present?

EDJ

Oxygen attacks the whole wine, it doesn't know the difference between tannins and pheynols, it just does its thing and starts breaking down the compounds it breaks down.

One of the reasons I'm not a big fan of the long decant times some people do with young wines. Oxygen will attack the fruit as well. Personally I think there is a sweet spot of about 25-60 minutes when the fade in the tannins is ahead of the fade in the fruit.

How long does the complete oxidation of wine take in room air, and at room temperature, when the wine is exposed to air over the surface area of standard size decanter? What about in an open bottle? Many oxidation processes for liquids occurs within a few moments, some much longer. It seems as though a chemist should be able to write an equation to describe the rate of oxidation of the tannins, the pheynols, and any other components of wine that one is interested in, based on oxygen content of the air, room temperature, volume of liquid, and surface area of wine exposed to the air. There's got to be some organic chemists here on the site. Oxidation of wine should be no more of a mystery than oxidation of any other mixed liquid.

Too many variables to answer that. It could take ten minutes or a week.