Ok. Now that you know the correct bottles, what now? Assuming you can manage to not drink them immediately out of excitement, the most important things to consider while aging wine is temperature and angle. So, please, no storing wine vertically on top of the fridge in the hot sun! If you are planning to purchase high end bottles and hold them for 20-30 years, I highly recommend investing in a wine fridge. I currently own a 36 bottle Danby fridge I purchased off Amazon for $300, but there are fridges and cellar systems that range up into the thousands, like the 166 bottle Wine Enthusiast Cellar fridge. I don&rsquo;t think you need all of that unless you plan on collecting hundreds of wines for years, but please keep them cold. This does not mean a shoe box in your closet or under the bed behind the lawn chairs. It&rsquo;s also very important to store wines in the horizontal position, not vertically. This prevents an oxygen gap between the wine and the cork which can lead to spoilage.

If you are buying a current new release of any of the bottles or regions I suggested above, at the very least, hold the bottle for 10 years. But you&rsquo;ll achieve way more interesting results if you hold it for at least 20. It&rsquo;s hard to predict the exact maximum aging potential of each wine but 40 years is a safe peak window.

The rest is quite simple! Live life and pull that bottle out for a special occasion down the road. I hope these tips save you from your own wine horror story and brings you immense pleasure for future celebrations, birthdays, and anniversaries to come.

&nbsp;

For more wine tips and recommendations download the CorkRules app in the Apple app store or follow us on instagram @corkrules.&nbsp;

The most important things to consider while aging wine is temperature and angle. So, please, no storing wine vertically on top of the fridge in the hot sun!

How to Age Wine

Wines from grapes grown in higher altitude areas with cooler climate has become quite the trend recently. This specific growing environment gives intense flavor but elegance and freshness to the final wines. To highlight and champion these conditions more and more winemakers are starting to use alto as a marketing and labelling term to show their grapes were grown in high altitude vineyards.

Decoding the wine label: Alto

Brut is a word often seen on labels for different kinds of sparkling wine. As you may have discovered when drinking these wines, it indicates that the wine is dry, meaning there is no perceived sweetness in the wine. But how about Extra Brut or Dry, what do they mean and are they the same as Brut?

Decoding the wine label: Brut

Semi-sweet Riesling, a type of wine falling out of style. It’s a shame, since these wines are perfect to pair with flavorful cuisines like Asian or Mexican, or simply drink as they come under the summer sun. The higher level of sugar left in the wine also means that the alcoholic fermentation was stopped before finishing, providing a wine with lower alcohol level and therefor easier grabbing a second glass of.

Decoding the wine label: Spätlese

Have you ever heard the word Xinomavro? Most have not. It is however a word on many sommeliers’ lips today, as it happens to be considered the grape variety with the highest quality in Greece, and one that is trending at the moment. The fact that Greece have been making wine for a long time comes as no surprise, but they have never exported an amount to make sure wine lovers around the globe tried it. With the growing wine tourism many have discovered these wines and are serving them in wine bars and restaurants in many countries today.

Decoding the wine label: Xinomavro

Chianti Classico, Valpolicella Classico, Soave Classico… Why do all these Italian wine regions have the Classico addendum and what does it mean? What is the difference for wines labeled as Classico?

Classico is a wine term in Italy seen on a few wine labels and it indicates that the wine’s from the historic center of the region, the heart. Using Chianti and Chianti Classico and their Sangiovese-based red wines as an example, Chianti is a rather large wine district within the Tuscany region. Chianti Classico is located withing Chianti as the central part and the one that originally existed. Back then this smaller region was actually called Chianti, but as the region grew the quality of the wine plummeted and the well-known characteristics of these red wines were watered down. The reputation took a hit and sales diminished. Eventually this led to the creation of Chianti Classico, which would be drawn from the original Chianti borders to recover the typicity of these wines. Today the quality of both Chianti and Chianti Classico have risen a lot due to modern techniques and knowledge about pruning, planting and temperature control in the winery.

Decoding the wine label: Classico

In the rarefied world of fine wine, where bottles can command prices equivalent to luxury cars, authenticity is everything. Laurent Ponsot's gripping memoir "FBI: Fake Bottle Investigation" reads more like a high-stakes thriller than a traditional wine book, chronicling his relentless pursuit of one of the wine world's most infamous counterfeiters, Rudy Kurniawan.

From Burgundy's Vineyards to the FBI's Most Wanted: A Winemaker's Quest for Justice

Chablis – one of the more popular styles of wine today and a region known by many. Most are familiar with the word Chablis and the light, fresh white wine with a touch of minerality it brings. Even though it’s a renowned wine, few knows what it really is.

Decoding the wine label: Chablis

Many grape varieties around the world of wine have names local to the region or country they’re grown in, even though they’re exactly the same. The most famous example would be Syrah in France where the same grape is named Shiraz in Australia. Another variety with two names is Pinot Grigio, or Pinot Gris.

Decoding the wine label: Pinot Grigio

Have you ever seen the term sur lie on a wine label? It’s not a grape and not a wine region, but a winemaking method used to give certain styles of white wine a rounder texture and a more complex flavor profile.

Decoding the wine label: Sur lie

Aldo Sohm Wine Bar

Alexis Rogers

Aldo Sohm

Aldo Sohm Wine bar

RT: Hello and Welcome to CorkRules!

A podcast where, in each episode, we will review a wine list from your favorite restaurants. I&rsquo;m your host Robert Tas along with Alexis Rogers, wine educator and restaurant sommelier

Hi Alexis, thanks for joining us on another episode!

AR: Always a pleasure Robert, even more so today as we are talking about one of my personal heroes!

RT: Well, then I&rsquo;m definitely glad we&rsquo;re doing this list today!&nbsp; CorkRules was created to demystify the wine lists at some of your favorite restaurants - an experience that intimidates most of us.

Our aim is to help prepare you to navigate that list, find those hidden gems, or value wines or that special bottle that will take your dining experience over the top.

Today we are discussing Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, which takes its name from its famous wine director. Said to be modeled after his own living room, this sleek Midtown joint is everything a good wine bar should be.

Alexis, the wine list does feature very cool, wine-nerdy wines and the menu has a great assortment of elevated snack plates designed to share and pair. I recently had the pleasure of going Aldo Sohm&rsquo;s Wine Bar and I loved the vibe and ambiance. But have to say it was intimidating even reviewing the list so I&rsquo;m super excited for us to tackle it.

So Alexis, why don&rsquo;t you first tell our listeners a little about Aldo.

AR: Aldo Sohm is an award-winning master sommelier and writer. He is the Wine Director at Le Bernadin - a multiple Michelin starred restaurant with more James Beard Awards than any other restaurant in New York. He has also done a lot of very cool collaborations including a French knife company to make his very own corkscrew and with famed Austrian producer, Kracher to make some killer wine. I&rsquo;m a total fangirl and just think he&rsquo;s so COOL!

RT : Haha. The measure of a good man is his wine list so let&rsquo;s take a look at that. What immediately stood out to you about this list?

AR: Being Austrian born, his pride in the wines of his native country is obvious here. He has sizable sections of both reds and whites dedicated to Austria. The whites are easy to spot on the menu because &frac12; of them are marked by grape bunches - indicating here that they are natural wines. Austria has some of the highest wine production standards in the world and they take their beautiful land very seriously. Most producers are organic, sustainable and/or biodynamic. This country&rsquo;s wines are marked by precision and their widespread use of their native grapes. The bottle that immediately grabbed my attention was 2018 Zweigelt by Kracher but I found it in an unexpected place - sweet wines. Zweigelt is a cross between 2 other Austrian red grapes - St Laurent and Blaufrankish and is bursting with bright red cherry and raspberry juices, and notes of black plum, licorice, pepper and chocolate. Now imagine these flavors concentrated into a luscious, sweet wine. This Beerenauslese level wine is very rare and would be a shame to miss. Definitely try this with the Duck Foie Gras for an absolute roller coaster ride and tactile flavor sensations. This might be rare but it&rsquo;s extraordinarily inexpensive so go for that 2nd glass for sure!

RT: That combination sounds incredible! Sometimes, you just need a glass or two of something and not a whole bottle and this sounds like a perfect example of that! Tell us more about the glass pour offerings here.

AR: I&rsquo;m absolutely in love with this By The Glass program. Personally, I would skip the bottles here and order glass by glass and small plate by small plate. Starting with the Croque Monsueir and a glass of the Franzin Quarzit Schiefer Trocken riesling from Mosel Germany. Next up are those Truffle Parmesan fries. I love bubbles with salty fried snacks so the Serrant L&rsquo;Overture Premier Cru Brut Champagne would fit the bill perfectly. The truffle and the toasty cheesy autolytic notes of the champagne will line up perfectly and the tight little bubbles will cleanse your palate of all that french-fry grease. If you&rsquo;re looking for something meatier and more substantial, Braised Short Rib with a glass of the La Banierre Crozes Hermitage Syrah will do the trick. Expressive Syrah always has a sort of smoked-meat essence to it. Meaty peppery savory goodness, meet meaty savory peppery goodness.

RT: My mouth is watering, all of that sounds incredible! I really need to make it over to Aldo Sohm for a few glasses!. Alexis, thank you so much for picking out some of these must-try pairings for us! To our audience, thank you all for joining us here on CorkRules.

If you would like us to review one of your favorite restaurants, please send us email to:

Info@corkrules.Com or visit our web website where we have a request form available and we will do our best to get it in the queue as quickly as possible.

We are looking forward to being with you on another CorkRules episode soon. In the meantime, please check out our website for other episodes of your favorite restaurant wine lists. And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.

&nbsp;

END

BRAT

Bocca di Lupe

Gap Weekend: A Film Shoot in Wine Country

Alba Restaurant

Alba

10 Greek Street

L'Auberge Chez Francois

Andrew Edmunds

Salt Seafood and Oyster Bar

Matteos Ristorante Italiano

Matteo's

Palmer & Co. is a Champagne House that has been producing exquisite wines since 1947. The winery follows a unique approach to winemaking, which involves selecting the finest grapes, respecting the environment, and blending the wines to create a unique style. The wines produced by Palmer & Co. are elegant, refined, and complex, and they have won numerous awards and accolades over the years.

Part of a small chain of chophouses serving steak, seafood & other classic fare in a clubby setting.

Per Se

homepage

CorkRules application allows you to discover wines at your favorite restaurants, learn with friends and be confident with price transparency. Order wine with confidence at restaurants and retailers. Get personalized recommendations. #DrinkWhatYouLove

Bobby Van's Steakhouse

Pacific Rim Vin De Glaciere Selenium Vineyard Riesling 2010

Columbia Valley, USA

Beaucanon Estate Cuvee Louis Merlot, Napa Valley 2016

Napa Valley, USA

Notorious Wines

Notorious Pink Grenache 2020

Grenache

Vin de France, France

Wolffer Estate

Cotes de Provence 'Summer in a Bottle' Rose 2021

France

Wölffer Estate

Summer In A Bottle Long Island Rose 2021

Merlot

New York, USA

Banknote

Counterfeit Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

Cabernet Sauvignon

California, USA

Boccantino

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2018

Montepulciano

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Italy

Passaia

Gran Passaia Toscana 2019

Blend

Toscana, Italy

Château d'Esclans

Whispering Angel Rose 2021

Grenache

Provence, France

Domaine des Pasquiers

Gigondas 2018

Blend

Gigondas, France

Château La Gurgue

Margaux 2018

Cabernet Sauvignon

Bordeaux, France

Catena

Malbec 2019

Malbec

Mendoza, Argentina

Château Gloria

Saint-Julien NV

Cabernet Sauvignon

Bordeaux, France

Clemens Busch

Marienburg Kabinett 2020

Riesling

Mosel, Germany

Gaetano d’Aquino

Chianti 2018

Sangiovese

Chianti, Italy