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 arenāt 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 thatās generally what Iāve 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 sheās had one bad experience, so Iām 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 āold wine turns to vinegarā in play?
Iām 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 itās likely that the majority of these are going to be a bad experience, then I donāt think itās worth working my way through them, which will leave a bad taste in my wifeās mouth (literally and figuratively) and instead Iāll treat it as a lesson learned. If on the other hand, itās likely that 70 or 80% of them will at least be pleasant drinking, even if not spectacular (they are cheap wines so spectacular wasnāt the expectation), then itās probably worth working my way through them.
Hereās just a summary by the end of each drinking window per CT members.