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This is my storage system in my basement.My everyday Red Wine is Yellowtail - Cabs, Merlot, Shiraz etc. etc. - At $5 a bottle, I haven't found anything I like better.
I buy it quantity and store it in my basement. A friend of mine built me a Wine Rack that is in a room in my basement with no windows. It is dark almost all the time. And since it is my basement the temperatures range from 62 degrees in the winter to 70 degrees in the summer.
I opened a few bottles of some 2004 Yellowtail Shiraz and it had some tints of brown in the red color and had a bit of the "Port" taste to it. I could tell it was starting to go bad. It was still drinkable, but not as good as it should be.
Is this normal for this wine to be going bad this soon? It was not just one bottle, as I opened 5 of them to make sure and they were all identical. When I first got the wine it was fine. I had thought that this wine should be good for at least 10 years, but what do I know?
Please no jokes about Yellowtail being so cheap that it is supposed to be bad. I like expensive wine too, but can't afford it on a regular basis.
Cut-Throat
Edits: 12/17/08 12/17/08 12/17/08Follow Ups:
Wines like Yellowtail are meant to be quaffed within a year or two of release. No tannins and very ripe fruit. They aren't meant to be aged because the fruit is already fully accessible.
The problem with fully ripe fruit and no acidity is that they start to turn to prune juice after a couple of years.
By the way, this isn't only for expensive wine. Poor years of first growths, inferior years of Burgundy, and lesser years of California's best trophy wines can do the same thing. I've had a number of wines usually served at special occassions where the owner has been saving it for that special time. The wine served was brick colored around the edge and flat with no fruit or complexity. Down the drain.
If you're going to save wines for more than 4-5 years you should do some research and see if they will improve with age. You don't have to subscribe to Wine Spectator or such. Email the winery for their opionion.
As for proper temperature, I have reservations on that. I had a few bottles of well picked wines from when I worked at a good wine store. When I went to college I left them with my parents. When I came home on vacation I found them on top of the refrigerator while my Mother cooked Christmas dinner, at least 90 degrees in the kitchen. They had also been through a Texas summer or two. Fast forward three years to when I opened one of them in 1984 ('70 Cos) to celebrate the birth of my first child. It was incredible. The others were just as wonderful.
Thanks for the info! - I have e-mailed the winery earlier today and asked them their opinion on this. The solution for me, would be to make sure I am drinking them within a couple years. I purposely saved a case or two to see what it would taste like. I was surprised it went bad so soon.
Cut-Throat
Edits: 12/19/08
(nt)
This was my response to my e-mail.
Kevin,
The 2004 vintage is no longer good. We normally suggest that you drink [yellow tail] within the first year of its production date.
Thank you,
Lisa Salerno
Marketing Services Assistant
W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Ltd.
Cut-Throat
...it has a lot to do with the tannins and structure of the wine.
Some wine is meant to be drunk now, and not aged much. That's one of the things I like about the Wine Spectator reviews -"Drink now...or hold through 2010".
But the 2004 is what, two to three years old now?
Seems like it should hold up better, but what do you expect for $5?
The temp isn't too bad - the important thing is that it doesn't change more than 8 degrees. More of a difference can cause the cork to expand and contract, letting air in which will oxidize the wine.
Nice storage rack.
I have a Vinotheque refrigerated cabinet for mine and just discovered some 2003 pinot noirs I had forgotten about. Some have gone bad and some are pretty good, suprisingly, since this is not an aging wine.
Yellowtail uses a synthetic plastic cork. They are all pretty uniform in shape and size. I don't think they would ever have a faulty seal. So I don't think any oxygen is getting in the bottle.
Cut-Throat
Yes it's a beautiful wine storage unit.Yellowtail has relatively high alcohol so it's shelf life will exceed 4 years.Your problem is the temperature,too warm.You should strive for a constant of 55 degrees,and no higher than 60.
As an aside,if you like the Yellowtail,try the Reserve,for about $11.50 it's big fruit and robust.
I would have to cool the room. And to get it down under 60 degrees, I would essentially be making a walk in wine cooler.I think I'll drink it before it goes bad and buy only new stuff in bulk.
I am just surprised that the red wine would go bad that quickly. A lot of restaurants (expensive one too, store there wine in a lot higher temps than I do and their turnover may not be that high on the upper end.
Cut-Throat
Edits: 12/18/08
In my novice opinion Yellowtail is one of those brands that you grab at the grocery store to drink the same night. I haven't tried the regular Shiraz but the Reserve Shiraz is especially nice for the price. A little research will reveal opinions as to which wines are in the drink it now category and which wines can take some cellar time to improve. Hopefully the latter category is most of what you have. An extreme example of this in my experience was a bottle of wine an uncle of mine made from grapes he grew in his backyard in 1928 that I tasted about 25 years ago. Surprisingly it was very drinkable and hadn't gone bad.
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