What is your New Year’s resolution? Mine is to keep my wine cellar current and not wait too long to pull my cellar wines. One of the biggest myths I hear is that all wine gets better with age. That is simply not true. Most wine is intended to be consumed within five years of its vintage date. Two years for most white wines is ideal. Most people don’t adhere to these rules and store their everyday wine a little too long.
I frequently tell this story. I think Karen MacNeil wrote it. If you put a Hyundai in the garage for 10 years it does not turn into a Mercedes. Instead, you just end up with a dusty Hyundai.
So the first thing you should know is that only about 10% of all wine produced is intended to be stored long term in a wine cellar. Once you have identified those wines, (See our Collectible Wines) you should make sure that you are properly storing them. In general, proper storing conditions are cool (55-58 degrees), dark, humid, and still. If you do all those things right, then you should be all set to drink your special wines when they are ready.
However, since most people may not have the right storing conditions or the most elite wines in their cellar, they tend to leave the wines they are storing in the cellar too long. So what to do? You need to start pulling them sooner. I know the excuses. Maybe they are too expensive for the moment. Maybe it’s the last bottle? Maybe you are just too busy tasting hundreds of wine for KensWineGuide.com and you tend to ignore the gems you left in your cellar. Well that’s my excuse, what yours? So as my New Year’s resolution, I have decided to make up special occasions and pull more gems out of my wine cellar before they go past their prime. I even created a little trick and some rules.
Two times per year, I look at the wines in my cellar and establish a reasonable drink date. For those wines that have to be pulled within six months, I put a piece of masking tape on the neck. This makes it easier for me to quickly identify the options that need my attention soon. The other option is to use bottle tags like these.
Here are a couple of my other rules. Zins & Merlots, in general, are at their best within their first five years of the vintage. (There are always exceptions, i.e. Rosenblum Zins and Pride Mountain Merlots tend to have enough structure to go longer.) But you need to know your wines. You need to set reasonable drink dates. Don’t wait too long. Your goal is to want the tannins to smooth out, but you also don’t want to lose the fruit and the other great qualities you enjoyed when you bought the wine. Cabs, Syrah/Shiraz, and Petite Sirah tend to age gracefully, but I tend to keep them under 10 years. Pinot Noir is just so fickle. Each wine is so different. I tend to like smooth and silky Pinots that offer instant gratification. Cellaring them a long time is not going to improve them but maybe it will reduce the tannin a bit. I tend to keep them 3 to 6 years in the cellar. Those are my rules, you need to establish yours to meet your tastes and your goals for the wine.
In conclusion, you need to know your wine celler. Know your wines. Bag the excuses and find a good reason to pull a wine from your wine cellar in the New Year. Your investment is worth too much to have them go past their prime and not be enjoyed at their peak.
Cheers,
Ken