Shocked by David Girard

We recently bottled our new vintages.  They are not released quite yet, however. The wines are in “bottle shock.”  As we all know, the wine industry is known for arcane jargon only a bucolic relative of Alan Greenspan could love.  The industry swells with collective pride when it can use a term like “bottle shock.”  Bottle shock seems to suggest not only sudden trauma, but a matter of profound gravity as well.  Perhaps only an experienced, trained professional could understand.  Perhaps we had better not ask….  Perhaps we should.

Bottle shock is real. It is also a fairly simple concept.  Wines, like people do not necessarily travel well.  That’s true even if the trip is only for the short distance from barrel to bottle.  You might think of it as analogous to travelers who get out of their car after a drive from Sacramento to Los Angeles.  All of their parts are still there when they arrive.  Nevertheless, they may need a while to stop feeling the vibration of the road.  They may need to straighten out their clothes.  They may need to look in a mirror to attend to the finer details.

So it is with wine.  Wines needs awhile to settle down and come back into balance after their trip from barrel to bottle.  Only then are they ready to meet you.