Will cellaring improve cleanskins?
I bought a case of cleanskin merlot and the first couple of bottles were a bit rough. The guy who recommended them says they will improve if I put them away for a year or so. Does that sound right? Should I leave them longer?
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What does any of this have to do with wine? Good bones, is what. Without them, few of us are lucky enough to get better looking with age. The same goes for wine.
Some wines are gawky when they're young: elements such as tannins from skins and oak can stick out like sore thumbs and might taste as though they haven't really got it together with other flavours in the wine.
Wines like this can benefit from bottle ageing, to allow time for harsher elements to soften and flavours to integrate. Sometimes they grow into something beautiful - but only if the underpinning structure and flavours were well balanced and good quality in the first place.
If they weren't, instead of having a young, unattractive wine, you'll just end up with a middle-aged unattractive wine.
How do you tell what will make good cellaring wine? Your best bet, unless you're an experienced taster or have a good relationship with your bottle shop, is to rely on advice from the people who made the wine. Lots of wine labels - particularly reds - carry recommendations for ageing. These are often rather broad (''cellaring: two to six years'') because the conditions in which the wine is kept affect how quickly and well it ages.
It sounds as though your merlot hasn't come with advice of this kind. If you open a bottle every six months or so, that will help you track whether it's improving - or not.