Help Me Plan Infanticide (Valentini, Pegau, Cosme)

I have three wines that should be saved, but two must be drank in the next 6 months. I can probably hold the third wine for about 3 years.

They are:

Valentini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2016
Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée 2017
Château de Saint Cosme Gigondas 2017

Have never tried any of these SKUs before. I am looking for reference experience, and I enjoy trying wines young.

Which two should I drink now, and how would you recommend I handle them (eg. open bottle X hours prior, or decant and sip slowly, etc etc)?

I drank a Chave Hermitage young once and it was enjoyable and very interesting. Whereas drinking nearly any Barolo young has been a total waste. So basically I’m looking to identify the one wine here that would not really give any pleasure or indication of its potential at this point, and hold that one.

Hold Pegau in any case, it’s a 25+ y wine.
Drink Trebbiano first.

What I don t get: you HAVE to drink 2 of 3?

Thanks for feedback.

“Have to” as in it’s not really feasible for me to store any wine for much longer than a few years at this point.

So the question is will any of these three NOT show anything interesting as a reference experience while they are so young.

FWIW, I had dinner at a restaurant last year that had no corkage if you bought a bottle at the wine shop next-door. Picked up a 2016 Pegau Reserve, and it was fantastic. Totally agree that it can be held for the long-haul, but it drinks well even young.

I would have actually said the opposite, since the Valentini Trebbiano really blossoms with age, and it’s next to impossible to find mature examples, where you could, in all likelihood, quite easily pick up at least semi-mature Pégaü: 2011, 2009, 2004 for example drink very well today and aren’t too hard to find.

This. I bought a lot of the 2017, It drinks great now but definitely able to go long. I have some Maggies for the long haul.

Agreed with William. Had a bottle of 2015 Valentini Trebbiano over thanksgiving and the instant I tasted the wine I knew it needed at least another 5 years, closer to 10 to get into it’s groove and become the great wine that it is.

With the Pegau and Gigondas you can decant them for a while to open up the wine more, but I always find decanting young whites meant to age to be much less of a substitute to bottle age.

On a related note, if you’re not in a position to age wines, I’d seek out bottles with some more bottle age to them or wines more geared towards earlier consumption. Either way, hope you enjoy all of those and do post tasting notes on here once you’ve consumed them

Thanks all.

From this and from offline convos, it seems like the Cosme Gigondas will be consumed first.

And from there I need to decide between the Valentini or the Pegau.

Does Pegau tend to go through a dumb/closed phase?

I would save the Valentini for last, as those need a few years to come together to integrate the sulfur better. They can also go 10+ years depending on vintage (a 2001 last year at 19 years of age was YOUNG). Pegau in its youth can always be fun and exciting as would be the Cosme.