WTN: Post NY Wines, and Acidity Question...

We had a wonderful New Year Eve with 15 wines, the highlights of which were probably the '99 Sociando Mallet (Haut-Medoc), '01 Le Grand Chene (Medoc), '04 Pavie MacQuin (St-Emilion Grand Cru Classe) and several RM Champagnes (Aubry from Abonnay is the one that I remember). An '06 Cote de Nuits-Villages from Gachot-Monot was a pleasant Burg with cheese, and the "04 Hagerty #3 (Minervois) was the disappointment of the night.
For New Years followup we went with an '07 Febvre Chablis, Champs Royeaux which I find to be consistently above average, and a Duval-Leroy NV with oysters that was spot-on. Then we went with an '06 Les Pensees de Pallus Chinon (deep, inviting, ready, delicious Cab Franc), pretty bottle too! This was very nice, but then for the main course (baked chicken w/a wild mushroom ragu, steamed broccoli, and baked sweet potatoes) the dinner wine bombed out. I chose the '05 Pierre Guillemot Bourgogne--bad mistake--this was not ready, and I'm not sure it will ever be. Very acidic, and even when I cut it with 2/3'rds of a lovely '05 Olivier Laflaive Cuvee Margot that did not work either. I'm not sure this wine will make it. I don't have experience with evolving acidity. Any help would be appreciated. Is this something that will change over time? I would say not, but would like to hear from anyone with knowledge.

I chose the '05 Pierre Guillemot Bourgogne--bad mistake--this was not ready, and I'm not sure it will ever be. Very acidic, and even when I cut it with 2/3'rds of a lovely '05 Olivier Laflaive Cuvee Margot that did not work either. I'm not sure this wine will make it. I don't have experience with evolving acidity. Any help would be appreciated. Is this something that will change over time? I would say not, but would like to hear from anyone with knowledge.

I'm no expert and I don't know this particular wine, but Burgundy is notoriously difficult to predict and notoriously difficult to evaluate during the shutdown period, which applies to many/most of the 2005s right now. 2005 was a pretty ripe vintage and most Burgundies had no problem with having enough body (the general 'problem' was being too tannic and requiring too much cellaring) so in general I would say that a 2005 showing too acidic now just need more time in the cellar.

But, I don't know this particular wine and it is only a Bourgogne so I would look for some more information before giving it the benefit of the doubt.

[David M. Bueker]

I guess I would want to know more about what you mean by evolving acidity. Normally acids in a wine don't change, but the elements that surround them (e.g. fruit flavors) do thus making acidity more apparent.

To understand the “evolution of acidity” in a wine you have to understand the relationship between acid and esters. These two are related, esters could be very simply thought of as compounds identical to acid compounds but containing one more molecule of oxygen. In a sealed bottle with no or almost no oxygen ingress, phenolic compounds and other components of the sealed wine could “steal” or “strip” oxygen molecules from esters therefore converting them back into acids. (From barrel aging (ester formation- a slight decrease in acidity might be noticed) to bottle plus some aging in bottle one can notice a slight increase in acidity). Decanting a wine vigorously (introducing oxygen) could actual decrease its acidity.

Salute

Acids and alcohols can react to form esters:

R1-COOH + R2-OH <-> R1-COO-R2 + H2O

The spontaneous reaction rate for this is very slow. Higher acidity would push the equilibrium to the right (ester formation).

-Paul W.

Thanks for your help. I guess, for an experiment, I will keep the remaining bottle for a few years and see what happens. This is a Kermit Lynch wine (the reason I bought it) so I would expect it to be good at some point. I'll report back. Thanks again!