In Nepal, importance of storing wine is not fully understood and a lot of bad cellaring practices have been performed causing premature death of consumers’ investment. In many occasions, it is sad to see already spoiled/off (turned into Vinegar) wine being sold in most liquor stores, supermarkets and famous department stores. These off wines are found to be unsuitable to drink but it is sad to see they are drunk unknowingly.

I regularly visit many well known restaurants, department stores and retail outlets and find a lot of wine improperly displayed on the selves or stored in negligence causing spoilage. My research shows that neither sellers have knowledge about prematurely aged/spoiled wine being served nor consumer is aware of consuming already spoiled wines. Simply it is lack of knowledge in both consumers and sellers about maintaining right conditions for storing their wines.

I feel it is essential to address this problem from preventing the wine from premature spoilage. To properly care for your wine take the following tips into consideration……

Maintain consistent temperature
Temperature is the most important factor that affects wine storage. Maintaining consistent temperature is most important point for storing your wine. Suggested temperature for storing your beloved wine is between 12°C to 18°C. Above 18° C can age your wine prematurely; in some occasions it can spoil quickly. Below 12° C -5° C is also acceptable temperature, however, it should be constant throughout the year. If storing your beloved wine in colder temperature, it will delay in aging process. We should keep in mind that white wines are lot more affected by temperature problems than red wines.

In Nepal, in many department stores and retail outlets, wine found to be stored in inappropriate conditions. During the summer seasons, wine being stored or displayed in high temperature or temperature fluctuating conditions. In many occasions, temperature has touched to 40° C but no preventative measures have been taken; letting the wine to be spoiled in few months. Though wine consumption in Nepal is increasing rapidly but if someone new gets first experience in drinking already spoiled wine, that person will hardly be returning to drinking wine. It is sad to find lots of wine purchased from department stores found to be prematurely aged or spoiled. >>Read More

Civilized world today considers wine in itself a culture, intellectual part of meal and healthy beverage.

In global community today, wine’s popularity is ever increasing and it has become multi-million dollar business internationally. In 2008 alone, 26.2 billion litters of wine were consumed worldwide. It is possibly second most consumed liquid after water in the world.

Throughout the history many distinguished philosophers, scholars, politicians, doctors, poets and other professional people around the world have expressed about wine. Below, we list some of the interesting and educational quotes.

    French writer, historian and wine connoisseur, Andre Simon once said: “Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost; united and well matched they are as body and soul, living partners.” In fact, Andre’s quote is such a signifying. Most wine producing countries in the world include wine in their meal and enjoy every drop of it. Uniting wine with food is best enjoyed and optimum satisfaction is achieved with meal.

    Jewish holy book, Babylonian Talmud that was written on 586 BC explains importance of wine for human health. It is addressed: “Wine is at the head of all medicines; where wine is lacking, medicines are necessary.”  Today 3000 years later, modern science conducted many research worldwide ( if you would like to get more information about health benefits of drinking wine, please get 15th issue of Food and Wine magazine or visit www.fnw.com.np) and confirm that drinking wine in moderation has substantial health benefits.

    There was a man who fall on hard times, sold his art collection but kept his wine cellar (a place where wine is kept). When asked why he didn’t sell his wine, he replied with dignity: “A man can live without art, but not without culture”.  Throughout history, many historian and cultural gurus have said, wine is itself a culture and has history of its own.

Misconception: Wine is for ladies and whisky is for gents.
Fact: Wine is for everyone. Men and women both benefit from drinking wine. In developed nations wine is considered as “Culture”, men and women equally drink wine.

Misconception: It is believed that corked bottle of wine is better quality than screw caped.
Fact: For Nepali consumers, it is better and safer to have screw caped wine than corked wine. During the long distance transportation (European countries to Nepal), wine bottles need to be kept up-right; when bottles are kept upright, it is most likely to get cork dry allowing air to enter inside the bottle. If air gets in the wine bottle and kept in the cellar for sometimes, the wine gets spoiled. “Spoiled” wine, which are plentifully available in Nepalese supermarkets (10% of corked wine in the world gets spoiled. It is more in Nepal)

Misconception: Nepalese wine traders and salesmen believe that vintage wine is better quality than other table wines.
Fact: Fact is that easy drinking table wines are as good as vintage wines as long as they are consumed within a year from bottling. In many occasions, non-vintage wines are of better quality and have value for money than some of the vintage wines.
With non-vintage wines, winemaker has freedom of mixing many varieties and vintage year of wines for improving quality and enhancing the taste and maintaining the quality year after year, whereas in case of vintage wine, is not possible.

Whatever is the case, I will attempt to clarify by asking the question; ‘Are aged wines always better than young ones?’ The answer is; ‘not always’. Freshly bottled wine sometimes actually tastes better than aged wines. Many find freshly bottled wine better than aged. Some people find the palette of savoury, woody flavour in an old wine less appealing. As wine matures the woody flavour of the oak barrel changes the structure of the wine, making it stronger.

Many wine drinkers today consider aged wine tastes better, but it really depends on your taste. Although all wines change with age, very few wines noticeably improve beyond a few months and wine maturity does have its limits. To be mature a wine must have an intrinsic chemistry capable of ageing/improving. The truth is not all wines have these properties to improve.

Then the question is raised; ‘why does aged wine sometimes cost more than fresh wine’? The answer is - that with time, the wine of a particular brand and year of production becomes scarce because only a limited number of good quality wines were produced in that year. As a particular wine becomes scarce, the price starts to increase pushing the wine value. It is as simple as supply and demand.

Primarily, the scarcity principal applies to wine collectors and connoisseurs rather than the majority of wine drinkers. Therefore though the average drinker has developed a somewhat false impression that wine, with age, has improved quality and that is why it should cost more to buy. It is not always correct. Very few wines have tendency of maturing after 5 years. Apart from the quality and year of production, taste depends on individual preferences. So it is really a matter of taste. To use a simple example - some people like less ripe bananas and others like fully ripened bananas. The same principal can be applied to wine also.

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