Durand, Durand
The day after Christmas I convinced my Dad to open a 2003 bottle of Silver Oak he had been hiding in a box in his basement for a decade. If you’ve met my Dad, you know what an achievement this is. If you’re trying to convince someone you love to open a fancy, old bottle, I went with this approach: “Don’t push it. Present the facts and let him decide on his own.”
The Facts:
This wine was 21 years old.
High quality Cabernets like Silver Oak can age 20-25 years if properly stored. Silver Oak recommends drinking their 2003 Napa Valley Cab between 2023 and 2029. If you’ve seen my parents’ basement, you know, this was not properly stored.
I love holding onto most age-worthy wines for about 20 years. They may continue to get better after year 20, but I’d always prefer to taste a wine as it’s approaching its peak, not after.
It was the holidays and my mother was making an outrageous prime rib.
My parents had just given me The Durand wine opener for Christmas.
I’ll tell you about the wine before I get to the real meat of this story—which is actually not the prime rib, but the wine opener. The wine was absolutely perfect and had we waited any longer it would’ve been a shame: this Cab was at its peak, if not, beginning its decline. During dinner I actually put a piece of the meat in my mouth, followed by a sip of Cabernet, swallowed, smiled, and said “this is why people spend good money on food and wine.”
I’d be lying if I said my expertise saved this bottle from disaster. What really did it: The Durand, a two part wine opener designed expressly to retrieve old or fragile corks. I foolishly attempted to open the Silver Oak with a regular waiter’s corkscrew. The cork felt soft so I thought I’d be ok, but it started to crumble and crack when I was halfway into it. I grabbed my brand new Durand, read the handy instructions so I didn’t make another mistake, and voilà! I got the cork out, with no crumbles in the bottle.
If you’re someone who collects wine and loves to age it, or if you’ve ever struggled with a crappy cork that you can’t get out of the bottle, I couldn’t recommend The Durand more highly. I’m adding it to my short list of wine tools I can’t live without right now.
Chin!
