Wine Ageing

There is a myth that wine improves with age.  Sadly this is untrue for about 99% of all wines produced.  Very few styles of wine are meant to improve with age, and fewer still that actually do so.  Top-end Bordeaux and Barolo should improve – their tannins soften and their aromas and tastes display far more complexity after ten or so years in the bottle.  Some don’t because their huge tannins never soften enough to be in balance.  Most wines nowadays are made to impress the wine judges and the consumer upon release.  Most reds will continue to be as nice for a couple of years after release, gradually losing fruit flavours and mellowing out, then deteriorating in quality thereafter.  Most whites and rosé wines are best drunk within a year of release, and Sauvignon Blanc is best drunk within 8 months of vintage, as its fruit flavours rapidly fall away.

So what is my advice for cellaring?  Well, despite it not being in my economic interests to say so, my advice is not to cellar wine unless you are a very keen wine enthusiast prepared to accept some shattering disappointments along with dizzying success.  Ensure you have the right conditions (get some advice on how to store the wine) and buy the right wines in the right quantity to make it worth your while.  You should buy no less than a case of 12 bottles because you should crack a bottle every year to ensure the ageing is going to plan (witnessing the wine changing is part of the fun), allow for a bottle or two where the cork will fail you (trust me, if you only have one or two bottles and one is corked you have a few immature thoughts), and then having half a dozen bottles to drink at their absolute peak with friends.

Alternatively, if all that seems too hard, at Summertown Wine Café we have two Superstar reds, the 1998 Roc de Cambes Bordeaux and the 1998 Rondan Rioja Reserva which you can drink by the glass or bottle at the bar, or buy for home.  Both are astonishing value considering they are at their peak of complexity: perfect for a cold winter night.

Rob Malcolm