Proprietor’s Blog 3/2: Bottle Shock
I cannot believe we’re only a few days away from bottling our 2021 Rosé and 2021 Sauvignon Blanc. These bottles are truly spectacular, and I’m so excited for them to be out for all of you to enjoy.
As we get closer to bottling, it reminds me that, though the wines will be in bottle and ready to ship out soon, we still have to wait at least four weeks before we start shipping.
If the Wine Is Bottled, Then Why Are You Waiting?
This question gets asked all the time, and I wanted to address an important and very natural process in the world of wine called “bottle shock.” Bottle shock happens to almost every wine, and it’s very common.
Remember the last time you moved from one home to the next, one office to the next, or wherever you experienced significant change? How did that feel? When I was 14 years old and we were moving from my childhood home to where our vineyards are now, I remember feeling excited and scared at the same time. I wasn’t ready for change. And even once I was, it still took me some time to adjust to my new bed and my new home.
Just like how we take time to adjust to new surroundings, so does wine. We forget that wine is constantly changing. It’s always evolving, from crush to fermentation to barrel aging to bottle aging, and even in the glass. Wine is ever-changing.
One of our winemakers, Steve Lemley, loves to tell me, “When you put the wine in a bottle, it’s like a pissed-off teenager. It’s not yet matured enough to be appreciated, so it lashes out.”
When the wine goes from tank or barrel into the bottle, it goes through a quick period called bottle shock. With AJA wines, we’ve found it’s about a four-week period for our whites and rosés, and about an eight-week period for our reds.
What Happens During Bottle Shock?
As the wine continues to adjust to its surroundings, it can sometimes taste off, change color, or frankly, just taste funky. It’s not because the wine itself is funky, it’s that it was used to certain surroundings and isn’t yet used to the bottle. After some time, the wine adjusts back to its normal flavors and aromas. This makes me appreciate wine even more. As the wine settles into its new surroundings, it begins to subside and learns to mature in the bottle.
So when we bottle these wines, we taste them once every week just to see how they’re doing. How have they adjusted? How are they tasting now in bottle? Are they ready for you?
This is one of the many hands-on activities we do at the winery. We’re small and family owned, and what we make is what you get, so I would never put a wine out there that I can’t back myself. And if I do say so myself, I have a very particular palate.
I hope you have a wonderful Wine Wednesday, and that you grab some of our fabulous bottles from our shop to enjoy this week.
Cheers,
Amanda