After reading any number of threads regarding newer wineries and newer wines, I have noticed a number of people who talk about holding eit limited bottles for several years before trying some. I really have to wonder why.
I love older wine. I am cellaring several tons of stuff to get it to my preferred age/maturity level. That being said I always try newer wines before laying down any additional bottles. Recently I have sampled Sandlands, Dirty & Rowdy and Enfield Wine Co new releases. Using those data points I am starting to build an understanding of how I want to handle aging these wines. I needed to try them to get the data points. Some of the wines were made in an enjoy now style, while others clearly have stuffing/structure to age and develop.
So for those who just sit on their bottles, what’s your rationale? Do you just not like new release wines? Is there some specific time you always/usually wait?
One option may be to cellar and observe CT over time. Useful if you like more maturity than the norm, but less so if you like younger wines.
There is the question of why the person bought the wine. Was it from liking the other wines from that winery, from a tasting, or going on the tasting note or points written by a critic?
I have bought a few bottles pretty blind, examples include a Rossese di Dolceacqua, Loazzolo brachetto dessert wine, sparkling shiraz, portuguese bairrada. All have been bought to expand my horizons. The Bairrada is a good example though, as it is rightly regarded as needing age, and even a decade on, can be quite tight. I trusted the guidance that it needed time, and was happy I did. I will buy more to cellar.
I agree, but within certain wine groups, California Syrah for example. You learn who “gets it” and who to ignore. There are some tasters I trust because of previous notes that I agree with.
I rarely buy a wine that I have not had before or have had enough of a producers wine to trust decisions for the length of time to lay down a wine and then check in every once in a while to follow maturation. Even if this wine comes from a new producer, Ive tasted it at their winery or at one of my wine groups and have a read on aging decisions.
I do hear what youre questioning as I know some who buy wine and just stick it away for years without really knowing where it is or how it will evolve for the sake of drinking "mature" wines; thats not my style.
But I guess when I think about it, I’m usually not buying / drinking ‘new’ wines, in the sense that the producers are launching a new enterprise, but rather trying wines that are ‘new’ to me, from vintners who have probably been making wine for a long time. So at least there I can rely a little on what others suggest.
I do find it surprising that people buy multiple cases to lay down, without making sure they like it first. Maybe that works for the most ‘investment grade’ style of wines that there is a ready secondary market. But I think in general its unwise.
So I agree that people should make efforts to try these new estates before loading up and sacrificing scarce cellar rackspace for them.
And iro drinking wine young, it is VERY rare for me to drink any wine in the same year it arrives in the cellar. I value aged complexity over vibrant fruit, so opening something very young would often result in disappointment, or at least frustration.
I typically don’t buy by the case, except from auctions when the price is very attractive. Those larger purchases of case / half case size have generally been very good. The only disappointments I can think of were Nervi Gattinara Molsino 1990, and a modest Portuguese wine. The positives have been much better.
In many cases, those of us in CA can visit the wineries and sample the wines during a pickup day or general tasting so we don’t have actually open one of preciousssssssss bottles =D
I agree completely David - I think it’s nuts to lay down significant numbers of bottles based alone on a winery’s reputation, especially when the winery is too young to have its reputation include aging the wine. I said something similar in the Sandlands thread; open a few.
That said, a lot of new wineries are releasing wine very young, sometimes right after bottling, just to keep up cash flow. These probably benefit greatly from 3-12 months in bottle even though they’re still young at that point.
But yes, I won’t go deep on a new winery on aging potential alone, unless I can see something I like in the wines on release. And not to rub it in, but indeed an afternoon drive and I get to taste pretty much any of these.
I almost always open up a bottle on/near release for the same reasons. The main exception to this has been Sandlands, or at least all the ones I could only buy 1 bottle of.
Most of my buys are multiple bottles at least 2 usually 4-6. I like to track them over time by opening one every to every other year depending on the wine. I do think way to many board favorites release wine way to young and still in bottling/filtering shock so usually don’t open the first one until 2.5-3 years from vintage date. When our ups boxes arrive I put them in the cellar and write the date on them and we don’t open and put them away for at least a month. In me early buying days we had not great experiences with wines from the UPS truck to the table the same day. I mostly buy from the same wines from the same producers each year so we usually have older things to check in with.
Totally agree and I try to taste from the winery so I don’t have to pull a cork for a data point. Thats not always possible but as many events as I attend its definitely the case for most wine I buy.
The only new winery where I haven’t tried anything before buying again is Macdonald even after buying two vintages. It generally takes me several vintages of a wine before I’m comfortable with a bit of aging and even then it is too hard to predict.
I don’t think I am good at judging wines young. There has been many over the years that I thought meh when opening one early only to find years later that the other one or two I bought turned out to be really good. So for things that aren’t priced crazy like Sandlands and Calluna I will sit on them for a year or two before opening the first. At higher price points it’s try first or single bottles until I crack the first one.
I don’t see the point in Pobegoing bottles right after you get them in the post. A wine will not fall apart if you don’t know it’s exact style within a year of release. You get ideas about a wine’s style from Cellartracker, the Webz, friends, posters here and elsewhere. They give me enough of an idea whether the wine might be ready or not to drink, of course, I tend to like wines with tannins integrated.
I love older wine. I am cellaring several tons of stuff to get it to my preferred age/maturity level. That being said I always try newer wines before laying down any additional bottles.
I agree. I don’t understand buying a few bottles and leaving them for years. I’d try one fairly soon. Not on the day of arrival, but within a few weeks.
Why? Because I might like it and want to buy more. If I wait ten years, I’m not going to be able to. If it’s a new winery or a new wine for me, the only reason I’d buy it is to try it and I would only buy one or two bottles for those purposes. Then if I liked it I’d buy more. So putting off trying it wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
If I know the wine pretty well, that’s a different story, but that wasn’t the original question.
It has a great deal to do with the variety. If I am buying Ridge Montebello or Chateau Montelena, for example, I am not about to pop a cork upon release, I know the house style, I buy in those vintages which attract me, and if I’ve not had the opportunity to taste the wine I’ll still lay it down for a while, possibly a good while. If it is Bordeaux, in some instances there is no opportunity to repurchase, and again, if I am familiar with the Chateaux and have not had the opportunity to taste the wine, I think it a waste to taste it if it is a wine to lay down. I have some 2006 Rinaldi Barolo; the cost would no longer be the same and really, what’s the point of tasting it now? I have had some 2001 Barolo recently from my cellar and boy what a waste of a good to great bottles of wine that was , as the vintage is nowhere near ready to drink. This is also hold the case of Sagrantino and Aglianico (Taurasi, and again I know which wineries I like).
Pinot Noir, Reisling, Zinfandel, Merlot and other varieties are easily assessed young, and I do so.