Sure, I’ve never said otherwise. As I wrote: it’s another hint about the quality inside but fill level capsule are more important. To be more precise, the label tells you something about who owned the wine before. Was it somebody who cared a lot about its wines or not… having the same fill level and capsule in two bottles, I would always buy the one with the good label. I don’t know about you guys but when buying expensive old wines (say HB 1989), I tend to be super paranoid, comparing all the offers on the market in terms of fill level, capsule condition, provenance and… label.
People can make fun of that (see Instagram comment above) as much as they want but that doesn’t make them right.
Apologies for the snark. It wasn’t directed at you or anyone posting here but at the stereotypical trophy collector more interested in showing off than drinking.
I see your point about taking care. If I were buying old bottles, I would be most interested in provenance (often hard to verify), fill levels, and signs of leakage. If there were no red flags there, I wouldn’t shy away from moldy labels. They suggest humid storage, making the external portion of the cork less likely to be brittle and friable on extraction.
Scratches or tears would not be too worrisome, especially on larger bottles that may he a tight fit in racking, but I’d avoid stained labels.
If buying or bidding on expensive bottles, labels that look too good for their age and described provenance would also raise questions of authenticity.
In other words, as I said above, the label matters if you are going to sell the wine. I do not understand what is so difficult about this concept or what makes it complicated. This isn’t a moral question (what were your motivations when you bought it or why did you change) but an economic one. I do not see how your having 4k bottles in your cellar alters the conclusion that the label matters more if you sell the wine than if you drink it.
True, true, it matters when you sell the wine and only then. I just wanted to add to your initial statement that even when you buy wine with the intention to drink it and not to sell it, it would be smart to still protect the label as you might realize only 10 or 20 years later that you have to indeed sell the wine and not drink it (because you have too many bottles or your taste changed). Probably, that I wasn’t clear enough in my statement, sorry for that.
I get what Andy is saying. I agree with him. Also, I just like having my things neat and well taken care of especially if a bottle costs in the 4 and 5 digits.
I wrap all my bottles in saran style wrapping. Without it, my bottle labels would be moldy within a year. I have one bottle that I left unwrapped in my cellar for 12 years and I cannot read the label at all.
Unless they changed the formula of Saran wrap, it is not an archival tool. There are archival plastic wraps for your multi decade bottles which I learned from a gent preserving family heirlooms of paper and photos. He was also a Mouton collector starting with the 1928
The treasured bottles in Bord and Burg producer cellars with high humidity, are frequently unlabeled and covered in unappetizing natural growths = humidity trumps labels. I have no objection to old moldy, wrinkled labels. Its the cork, ullage and non-moisture capsule corrosion with old bottles I consider. Old labels with less sheen and those which did have a primitive sheen(thinking of Mouton) are less durable and less moisture resistant than today’s.
It is easier for a counterfeiter to producer a new looking label.
Today’s label perfection craze was fueled by the Asian markets’ demand for perfect labels.
I agree with this after an experience of my own. I have a bottle of 70something Latour. I transported it in a shipper (bottle inside shipper inside cardboard), inside a cooler with a bit of ice at the bottom. The bottle got cold enough that after it was transferred to my storage and came to storage temp the condensation on the outside of the bottle soiled about 1/4 of the label. The bottle itself has been stored in a cellar since it was purchased by the case at release, and immediately transferred to my storage after it was given to me. Not so good label, A grade stored wine.
Frankly, if I were deciding whether to buy a bottle of older wine, seeing some mold on the label would be a positive, assuming I was buying it for consuming and not for future resale. By itself, it would not mean that much, but in combination with other things, it would indicate proper storage. Wine stains on a label I would take as a negative because it could indicate seepage.
My home fridge has a pretty high humidity level. Some labels seem particularly affected by the humidity - the adhesive seems to weaken and I get crinkles on the labels. Obviously it doesn’t matter for wine quality but some of these I do intend to keep for many years and may try wrapping them in siran. I recently purchased an offsite locker where the humidity is lower and have moved those long term bottles there. Thanks to the OP for starting the discussion. Any tips to regulate humidity inside a fridge?
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