Wine Tip #473- Lift The Shelf Above Your Pinot Bottle Before Pulling It Out Of The Fridge…

…or else you’ll end up with a bottle looking like this….Yup. I did it. I made a classic ‘impatient wine drinker’ mistake. The company was thirsty, I wanted to impress, I hurriedly reached for a prized ‘06 Archery Summit Red Hills Estate Pinot Noir and yanked it from the fridge.

I knew it was going to happen as I was doing it, but it was too late. Newton’s Law’s of motion were already on display, I watched in horror as the scene in front of me played out in slow motion.

It’s a common problem with today’s Wine Fridge appliance, regardless of manufacturer.  In an effort to try and squeeze as many shelves in a relatively small space, they are stacked tightly together, much like the coach section of most commercial aircraft.  There is generally adequate room for skinny, Bordeaux bottles, and certainly the traditionally slender Riesling and Alsace wine bottles have no problems.  But for those of us that are blessed with more full-figured (I prefer the term ‘curvy’,) Burgundy and Rhone bottles, we are in for a tight squeeze.

Wine fridge shelves are generally made of wood, and have a bit of give.  So by carefully pulling the shelf above your pinot bottle, you can eek out enough room to remove the bottle unscathed.  Carefully being the operative word here.  My lack of carefulness led to the predicament-at-hand; thus this blog post.

Fortunately, a wine’s quality is not affected by the condition of its label. 2006 was a pretty good year for Oregon Pinot, and Archery Summit can generally be counted in to deliver solid results in any year. If you followed WineExpedition in the past you may recall our visit to Archery Summit resulted in some good Pinot being poured, and if memory serves, all of the labels were in excellent shape (apparently they know how to lift a shelf over there).

This Pinot had a nice, vibrant color, and a good nose of spicy red cherries and a hint of sweeter berries (like a ripe raspberry). The palate was substantial yet refined, with rich flavors of wild berries, cherries and a hint of forest-y mushrooms. It was balanced, with a weight on my tongue and a rolling finish. After about an hour, I revisited and was rewarded with an even better experience; the wine had settled and more of the spices came into play. The torn label was quickly forgotten as we finished the bottle, smiles of satisfaction on our faces.

What the label should have looked like…

This afternoon, I took a moment to eyeball my other Pinot bottles to make sure they were placed in such a way as to put as little of the label in contact with the shelves as possible.

Just for fun, I googled the subject of ‘torn labels on hastily removed Pinot bottles’, and I actually found a good quote in a review of a 170-bottle wine fridge onthis online review site. The reviewer revealed: “…most of the shelves (except for one shelf) don’t fit odd shaped bottles such as a Turley Zin, Pinot Noir or Champagne bottles. You have to remove shelves to make those bottles fit; otherwise the labels scratch off…” Hmmm… If only I had read this review sooner.

Considering I have a good half-dozen bottles of Pinot in my fridge, along with four of those damn ‘odd-shaped’ Turley Zinfandel bottles, I need to proceed with caution. The motto here should be: ‘…slow and steady wins the race…’.

By the way, for those of you who noticed a bit of a long spell between posts, I hope to be posting a bit more often. My Wine Expedition is back on track… I’ll explain soon…

Cheers!