Past the drinking window -- what should I suspect

OK, I was guilty of filling up my wine cellar way too quick (something that everyone warned against doing) and in many cases with wine that was ready to drink or otherwise had relatively small drinking windows (based on pro reviews and/or CT). I started before I actually completed my house/wine cellar and was storing at a wine shop, and then we also had a period of a couple years that we drank very little wine, which is when I would have made a dent in these ready to drink wines.

Generally speaking, the wines that are in this position arenā€™t very expensive (at least not individually, but collectively they add up), and I probably paid 20-40 per bottle, give or take.

Here are a few examples of some of the wines that I have 6-12 bottles of, that are quite a few years past the CT drinking window. I put the end of the CT drinking window in ().

2015 Pierre Ragon Quincy Domaine trotereau (2018)
2013 La Ferme du Mont CƓtes du RhƓne Premiere Cote (2018)
2009 Conquista Malbec Reserve (2018)
2013 Altocedro Malbec La Consulta Select (2019)
2015 ChĆ¢teau de France Blanc (2019)

Now, I know one suggestion will be pop the cork and try, and thatā€™s generally what Iā€™ve been doing and trying to work my way through the past the drinking window stuff, but my wife often establishes a strong opinion on a type of wine if sheā€™s had one bad experience, so Iā€™m curious generally, speaking, what happens to these lower end wines when they are past their prime/drinking windows?

Do they generally simply start to lose their flavor and become bland or subdued, or is the old ā€œold wine turns to vinegarā€ in play?

Iā€™m trying to decide if I should just take some of these and dump them out and toss the bottle, or if I should try them. If itā€™s likely that the majority of these are going to be a bad experience, then I donā€™t think itā€™s worth working my way through them, which will leave a bad taste in my wifeā€™s mouth (literally and figuratively) and instead Iā€™ll treat it as a lesson learned. If on the other hand, itā€™s likely that 70 or 80% of them will at least be pleasant drinking, even if not spectacular (they are cheap wines so spectacular wasnā€™t the expectation), then itā€™s probably worth working my way through them.

Hereā€™s just a summary by the end of each drinking window per CT members.
past-window.JPG

You poor tenderfoot. You have a long journey ahead. They should be fineā€“just not built to age, so might as well drink them young.

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Instead of doing a data analysis and crowd sourcing opinions, just pop them, drink them, and report back and tell us what you thought of them.

As mentioned, just trying to figure out if Iā€™m going to experience a high degree of foul, since the impact on my wifeā€™s willingness to get out of her wine comfort level will be impacted more than the cost of tossing the bottles.

Since you have multiples, why not just pop one of each and taste through them all without your wife? Either by yourself or have a few wine friends over for a tasting. Then you can be the judge if itā€™s worth drinking in the future.

One thing to note is that drinking windows are extremely subjective, and many can and do underestimate how long some wines can drink well for. So, while they can serve as an indicator, I wouldnā€™t rely exclusively on otherā€™s drinking windows to determine if a wine may be drinking well or not.

You donā€™t necessarily need to pour those over the hill wines for wife. You can just open a bottle, taste it and then make a determination of whether itā€™s sound or you want to reach for a different bottle.

Ultimately from the sound of it, there appears to be two potential outcomes: youā€™re either going to open these bottles and toss them, or youā€™re going to open them and drink them. In either case youā€™re going to open the bottles. Why not give it a taste?

Iā€™m certainly no stranger to opening a bottle, finding it over the hill or flawed, pouring it out and reaching for another. Others Iā€™m serving wine for donā€™t really need to taste the flawed wines, I just reach for something else then.

Maybe my strategy will be something like, if Iā€™m looking for a non oaked chardonnay to go with dinner, Iā€™ll have a backup known good to go with, but before opening that, pop one of my questionable ones, if no good pop another, if no good, just go to the stand by. If I keep that habit up, I can probably rotate through them in a somewhat reasonable amount of time if many are unpleasant, or Iā€™ll find that most are drinkable.

I understand your predicament but Iā€™m with the ā€œremember itā€™s just grape juiceā€ crowd here - itā€™s not worth overthinking. One thing to keep in mind (and sadly this wonā€™t make this any easier for you) is that those wines are not going to be badly flawed as a result of being a few years or even a decade past what a CT consensus has determined to be their window. They might have lost some brightness and fruit but theyā€™re unlikely to be ā€˜foulā€™ unless they were subject to bad storage conditions during those extra years. Of course, not having tasted them young you wonā€™t know how age has affected them, so drink up and suggest to your wife that she not draw conclusions!

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The easiest solution is to simply go in to CT and edit the drinking windows to your own personal setting of 2021ā€“2022. Then all your bottles will be in their optimum window for enjoyment now.

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This is one of those situations where maybe you donā€™t go ā€˜full disclosureā€™ with the wife (i.e. donā€™t share that spreadsheet with her!).

I think the chances of one of these wines being bad/ undrinkable is very low and significantly lower than the chances it will be acceptable or even surprisingly good. I would do just as you say - keep these in play for near term drinking, maybe have an alternative ā€˜window readyā€™ bottle in mind as a substitute just in case. ā€œGo for it!ā€ with no worries is my advice. Cheers.

P.S. Many of the CT drinking windows are just summarized guesstimates and WAGs. Even the professional critics are making guesses/estimates, though hopefully based on knowledge and experience. Bottom line is that no one really knows the future optimum drinking window of a wine.
pileon





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I tried one last night, a French Sauvignon Blanc (2015 Pierre Ragon Quincy Domaine trotereau), which the community had the end of the drinking window at 2017. It was a bid subdued, almost bland, but still had a hint of grapefruit and was pleasant, but not spectacular. Itā€™s one where I had bought a case, with us both being Sauvignon Blanc fans, but when we had this period that we just about completely stopped drinking wines, all these wines I thought we would drink over the next 2-4 years all of a sudden became a backlog of out of date wines.

Anyway, Iā€™ll keep working my way through them, and more times than not reach for the older bottles when itā€™s just my wife and I and try and work through these, and then when I find one that I have multiple and I feel it has plenty of life left, Iā€™ll update my drinking window.

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I expect itā€™s very unlikely the reds will be bad. Some might be on the downside but these are not really old wines.

My recommendation on whites would be not to buy more than you can drink in the short term unless you really know you want to age a particular wine. Thereā€™s a lot more risk of oxidation and a lot of people donā€™t prefer aged whites anyway.

Itā€™s the rare wine that doesnā€™t hold up pretty well for at least a few years after bottling. I have Sauv Blancs from 2010 that are excellent, and as Craig says, most red wines will be fine over that stretch. Drink through your wines, they are likely to be just fine. Then, as others have said, stop overbuying wines you donā€™t know you like from past experience. Have fun!

The red wines will like be fine. Cellartracker and most critics tend to err on the side of caution, but Iā€™ve had many red and white wines that exceeded the recommended drinking windows from both. Different people prefer to drink wines in different phases of development; itā€™s perfectly fine if you prefer the purer fruit of younger wines.

The Quincy would have been the one that I would have been most skeptical about. In my experience, Quincy is a prime example of a wine that does need to be consumed in its first 2-3 years, and not one of the better Loire appellations for Sauvignon Blanc, although Iā€™d more than welcome any examples to prove me wrong. Plus with climate change, things in Quincy may be different in a few years, and the wines will have more fruit and structure - TBD.