Personal wine cellars have become increasingly rare over the last 20 years as the industry moved toward ready-to-drink fruit-forward wines. But keeping even a modest cellar in the home can reward the wine enthusiast with the pleasure of turning a $30 wine into a magnificent – and pricey – gem. This article by the Toronto Star’s Gord Stimmell provides some good advice on which wines are worth cellaring in this age of New World-dominated youthful wine.

Some tips from Stimmell:

-When he finds a red that he likes, Stimmell says he’ll buy six bottles and drink one every six months.
-Drink everyday reds within a year.
-Be careful not to over-cellar Burgundy
-Top Rhône reds can age for 20 years.
-For most other reds, keep the cellar ceiling at 10 years.
-Drink $10 white wines as soon as possible.
-Premium whites worthy of cellaring for up to 10 years include German, Alsatian and Austrian Rieslings.
-Canadian icewines can be cellared for up to 12 years.
-French Sauternes can last for decades.
-Chardonnays are prone to oxidization after four years of cellaring.
-Premium New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has the capacity to evolve tremendously.

Of course most of us can’t afford to build a giant walk-in wine cellar with a tasting counter, but that shouldn’t stop you from finding a suitable corner of your abode for laying down a small collection. The Wine Doctor has a guide to creating a home wine cellar here.

Next time you find a decent wine that you like, buy a few more bottles (or a case) and lay them down. What could impress dinner guests more than a bottle from your personal cellar – even if said cellar is actually just a nook in a temperature-controlled corner of your condo.

Labels: cellaring, Wine Aging

My dad, who has a nice collection of age-worthy wines, often opens up a bottle and says, “This one needs a few more years,” or, “This one’s over the hill.” Managing a wine cellar, even a small one, is not an easy task. Every bottle has its own optimal date range for consumption. Drink it too soon and you might get harsh tannins and unripe fruit; wait too long and the flavor is lost forever.

WineEducation.com has a good rundown on wine aging. The last line of the article is probably the most important point: the only way to know if the wine is ready to drink is to taste it. If you buy your wine by the case or half-case, this allows some room for trial and error. Open a bottle and if it needs more time (tannins still a bit rough, fruit to powerful), let the rest of the case sit for another year and try again. That way you get to taste the evolution of the same wine as it ages – a fantastic experience that really highlight the fact that you’re drinking something that’s still alive and ever-changing.

If you don’t have cases of wine to experiment with, check out WineAging.com’s searchable guide, which lists the optimal year to pop the cork out (or unscrew the top). CellarNotes.net also has a chart to use as a general guide.

Personally, I’ve found the over-the-hill wines much more disappointing than under-ripe bottles. When you’re expecting something great from a wine that’s been lying down for decades, and all you get is a bland experience, it’s a real letdown. Drink a wine too young, on the other hand, and it’s still bursting with flavor – it might make your cheeks pucker, and it won't be as complex as it could be, but it still has potential for greatness. So when in doubt, just drink it, and if you’re lucky, you’ll hit the wine aging sweet spot.

Labels: Wine Aging, wine over the hill