Forgotten Bottles That Hit The Spot
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Cellaring modestly-priced bottles can reap great rewards...
How best to tackle the tricky subject at home? Lucky for me – and I should know better! – admission of guilt came with unexpectedly delicious glasses of wine.
Unexpectedly because both had been stored, albeit in tip-top conditions, beyond their published drink dates, but also because both were modest wines.
With an excuse found to open a bottle of each within days, it was a relief and a pleasure to find just how good they still are.
The Society’s Exhibition Côtes du Rhône 2001 in magnum is fully mature, but silky and healthy; perhaps not an improvement on its recent past but nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable drink. Moreish and delicious was the conclusion on Château Pey La Tour Reserve 2003. We often refer to this admirable property as a model estate. Their 2003 provides the proof!
A combination of learning to love wine with French friends who drank good but simple, and lack of the sort of cash that allowed me to buy grand names, means I have had great pleasure over the years from cellaring inexpensive bottles. Choose carefully and you start to understand the potential pleasure and satisfaction in laying wines down.
But I would recommend that you follow the Society’s advice on drink dates, and do as I say not as I do!
Joanna Locke MW
I think this is a really interesting post, and captures what I often try to do: look for wines that aren’t terribly expensive, but which will evolve and give me great pleasure from their relaxed, subtle maturity, even if they lack the power, concentration and complexity of posher wines.
I’ve actually enjoyed a 10-years-or-so old bottle of the Wine Society’s Alsace blend which someone had stored, and similar wines.
However, how should one pursue such goals, while obviously being mindful of the risks. Often the Society’s drink dates seem very conservative generally, and with cheaper wines, none are given in most cases.
Would be great to hear your thoughts on some wines that might age in this way.