Mpls wine guy, I do have some multiple bottles but I guess I wanted to find a reference vs. opening up one of each bottle (smile). I've cot cabs from napa about 10 yrs old, some french wines (bordeauxs, chateauneuf du pape, hermitage) about 7 yrs old...etc. I thought maybe there would be an online resource I could use to reference.
I'm still learning myself. I have started shelling out big bucks for older vintages to see what they taste like closer to maturity.
K&L Wines sells a 1989 Chateau Rochebelle that is quite nice and mature, even though it's not rated all that high. Hopefully some day I'll have the money, the space and the willpower to drink my wines at or near peak.
Posts: 570 | Location: Oakland/Rockridge, CA | Registered: Dec 13, 2006
If you have bordeaux that is 7 years old, I would probally hold. 2000 was a great vintage. However if it not as old as 1995 and isn't 2000 or 2003 then i would probally drink them in the next few years.
You can try CellarTracker. The drinking windows are input by other wine drinkers, so some is their own opinions. But I think that it is strongly driven by what they've read in WS, WA, etc.
Even better would be to use it to track your holdings and kick a few bucks to Eric to support a great product.
Posts: 1319 | Location: San Diego, CA | Registered: Nov 19, 2005
Originally posted by xaimaica: Very funny purple haze.
I was mostly being serious!
If you only have single bottles, Board-O's suggestion of asking people here is a good one. Cellartracker is another free resource, but I'd be much more inclined to trust judgments from posters here than Cellartracker. Just too many unknowns on CT.
PH
This message has been edited. Last edited by: PurpleHaze,
Posts: 9259 | Location: Maryland, USA (DC suburbs) | Registered: Nov 22, 2003
Try a search like "1997 Phelps Insignia Parker" or "2000 Shafer Hillside Laube" or even "1998 Pavie Tanzer" to get tasting notes "borrowed" by retailers and other reviewers. You won't always get drinking windows (never from Tanzer) but the descriptions of the wines will often tell you what you need to know.
PH
Posts: 9259 | Location: Maryland, USA (DC suburbs) | Registered: Nov 22, 2003
I'm probably not the best example to follow, but anyway.
I do two things (or maybe three).
I buy a bottle to taste and try to figure out what the time frame would be to drink this wine and vintage.
If it's ready to drink and I like it, i'll buy a few bottles, maybe six, and I'll see what the next vintage will bring.
If it's a keeper, I may buy twelve or twenty-four bottles. Every now and then I'll pop one from the cellar to check on it's evolution.
Most of the time, as I bought the wine because of it's quality, the wine will be pleasant on every occasion. Some wines can go through a totally numb stage, tasting of nothing, bad luck then. You'll have to leave the rest for half a year to open up again.
It's part of the fun to see the wine evolve over x years. And most of the time you're so (un?)lucky to find out that the last bottle from the crate is definitely the best...
Furthermore, my very personal conviction - quite a few exceptions notwithstanding - is never to keep any bottle longer than ten to twelve years. Not even the best. Some of the collaegae will want to shoot me for that, they know where they can find me.
