Defaix Chablis is an exception. But, as an early poster opined, cost of holding is prohibitive. Look at late release Dom (Plenitudes) and Leroy.
The OP asks âPre aged wine? Why is it not a thing?â
The snarky/strictly factual answer is that all wines are âagedâ to some degree on release. What does the OP specifically mean by âagedâ?
The whisky analogy doesnât work because wine doesnât do well being held in cask for years.
While some wineries have library wines available, in general itâs financially and logistically problematic to carry inventory.
We need one of those âMaster Classesâ from Rudy K.
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Well, Marcassin is certainly taking a run at it.
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Exactly. Folks tend to normalize it a bit because of whisky and champagne, and as has been mentioned in this thread there are some producers who do this.
But how many businesses do you know, in alcohol or otherwise, who are willing to front the capital and effort for multiple yearsâ of output without any promise of a payoff? Very few, and even fewer at the margins that wineries make.
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If you talk to any winery owner, they will tell you that, in general, carrying an inventory is poison.
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While certainly true from a financial perspective, there are several board members who do it anyway. Lagier Meredith, Tercero, Santa Cruz Mountain and Windy Oaks come to mind. Some slightly bigger operations like Tablas Creek or Bedrock offer library wines regularly (at least at the tasting room). Some, but not all, charge prices that take their cost into account.
Right-- just as one example, it takes serious assets to launch a Methode Champenoise sparkling program which you would want to hold for 5, 6 years if you can, not to mention a multi-vintage base managed solera-style. Same for port-style wines, etc., etc.
Apocryphal storyâŚ
A guy who used to be i my Hi Fi club used to work on a linear accelerator here in California. The facility changed from an older linear accelerator to a new one. The cool things was it wasnât a swap. The old one had to remain for quite a while as they got the finer points of the new on all set, and after then new one was commissioned, the old one still worked. So, with a now excess linear accelerator, they now had a new toy to play with for a while.
My buddy liked making Lichtenberg figures and he has a big collection of very cool figures.
He said the director was a wine âsnob,â and played with using the accelerator to bombard wines and, so it is claimed, he said that a good load of accelerator time can make an âaged wineâ the was too good to be believed.
He also said 90 minutes in an MRI affected positive evolution in a wine, as well.
Fascinating, but I donât know if itâs true.
Anton
In the whiskey world, I ran across this producer trying to accelerate imparting wood into the whiskey. Not exactly accelerating all the aspects of aging but probably the most recognizable one. They pull from barrels in 6 months or so and then in to tank pressurization for 24 hours
Pre aged wine is a thing
Some are control by region rules (see Brunello di Montalcino). And some are winery standards ( see Paul Masson)
There are more that are mentioned up thread, Rubicon, Lagier Merideth, etc.
If there was a computing advantage for the wineries to do it, Iâm sure more would. Yellowtail doesnât need to be aged for 12 years, Leroy does. But people are happy to buy when they can at original release and hold. As a matter of fact, any of us could start a wine holding business. Buy wine on release and sell at our calculated optimal drinking window.
If by âany of usâ you mean the fraction that have access to the necessary capital, sure.
Yep
Thatâs what I mean. If it is such a great business model, we should have no problem raising funds and get in at the ground floor.
We can buy all the Leroy at release and sell it 25 years later for a big windfall.
Our R&D dept can analyze Yellow Tail for optimal dinking window and we can have our annual 5 year re-release from all the stocks we have put aside. One stop shopping, taking the burden off of the consumer to buy and hold. Off course the wineries themselves will see what a great idea it is and eventually cut us off and take it in house.
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PerhapsâŚ
âŚuntil you get a smoke affected vintage and then suddenly your poison is like Lembas, the elf bread in Lord if the Rings.
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btw-there already is a wine holding company. Itâs called, IIRC, The Wine Vault. They buy wines, primarily Bordeaux on release and then hold them until they reach maturity(-ish) and then sell at current prices.
I am not sure how the model works now, but they did reasonably well through the range of Bordeaux, not just the classed Chateaux, and were a great resource for Bordeaux at wholesale for restaurants and shops. I think they were based out of NY but they had a small distributorship in Oregon that did pretty well. They were very organized though, which would definitely be a prerequisite for success at that endeavor.
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Thanks Marcus
Looks like it could be a profit making endeavor. Wonder how they manage downside risk, if that were to occur or price stagnation. Holding cos s would then put them in the red
My take on their risk management is that they dabble in the upper end wines but really focus on the fact that Bordeaux is a huge region, with many good but unheralded producers. I was briefly in Bordeaux while working for a distributor. And if you were able to buy in volume, many small producers were very open to negotiating on price.
I met the people who ran The Wine Vault, and their basic premise was that for the small chateaux, the wines always increased in value between release and say 10 years post release. And when you can offer a mature wine to a restaurant at a reasonable price, there is good enthusiasm.
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Someone said wineries are paying taxes on inventory. What taxes are those?
Tercero was mentioned earlier, and while itâs true that he holds some reds for several years before release heâs also upped the proportion of his wines that he releases early. Heâs moved from one rose to two, added additional white varieties to his lineup, and added carbonic versions of some of his reds to make an early-drinking and enjoyable âpicnic wineâ sort of thing. Theyâre all worthwhile in their own ways, but heâs clearly had to move beyond holding 65% of his wine for 3-5 years pre-release.
Another great source for wines with age (and generally good provenance) is Garagiste. You have to build yourself a mental filter to get rid of the sales overhype, but he regularly offers decently aged wines for quite fair prices.
Indeed. Living on the water in the Southeast, I see people drinking $100-500 Napa Cab with their fish entrees alllllllll the time. They are going out to a ânice dinnerâ and want an appropriately âniceâ bottle of wine which = Shafer, Insignia, Opus, Cardinale, etc (steakhouse usual suspects). Then when the tannins clash with the fish like crazy, they interpret that as a âstrong/seriousâ wine instead of a wildly unsuccessful pairing.