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When should you lay down wine?

Posted by jimbill on February 4, 2010 at 19:35:31:
Does all wine benefit from cellaring? Of course not.

What does cellaring achieve? IMHO, it balances out the tannins (sometimes harsh) with the fruit to give a more complex flavor. Bordeaux, especially older vintages, are made with this in mind. The ones I tried from the 70's were sometimes mouth puckering with tannins upon release. Ten years later they were a totally different wine.

Many new world wines are made with a very fruit forward style. Think Australian Shiraz or California Zinfandels. I enjoy these wines, but I don't think they will benefit from aging.

To paraphrase a description I read recently and totally agree with "The fruit of the grape is caged by the tannins, eventually the tannins will soften and let the fruit out". If the fruit is already out why would you wait? The wine won't gather complexity, it will only lose fruit.

I recently went to a tasting of Hourglass wines. The Owner was there and was asked how long his wines needed to be cellared. In my opinion the ones we were drinking were as good as they were going to get. Strong fruit and, as he put it, silky tannins. He danced around the subject and then told a story about sitting next to Mary Novak of Spottswoode Winery. They were trying some older Napa Cabs and she whispered to him "I hate older wines".

Don't put an unnecessary mystique around wine. If the fruit is already there and there are no harsh tones, then the wine is probably ready to drink. Also take into consideration what the winemaker was trying to do. Many, if not most, are producing ready to drink wines do to the current taste and the inability of most to store wine.