What I like about old wine

[Shaun @ Tru6]

even fair to good old wine is still great wine. Just polished off a 1996 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau while cooking tonight's feast.

not noted as a great wine, it was still, to me, a great wine! just wonderful.

running to get the lobsters.

[Hard-Deck]

Excellent! I savor old wine and mead myself.

[mossguy]

Drinking and Driving on Amateur Night is not a good idea.

[imcarthur]

This was our wine tonight.



Excellent, btw.

Ian

Edit: And I agree. Wanting older or 'properly aged' wines is why I started collecting 12 years ago. Now I am reaping the benefit.

[Buckterrier]

Hey Shaun, Happy New Year to you. Apologies for going OT but this was cool. I'm not sophisticated enough to drink wine but last night I did have this over strawberry & pineapple wedges at a friends home. It's a 50 year old balsamic vinaigrette. VERY expensive stuff and tasted marvelous.

[Tobra]

Not always, it depends on the wine. Some of it is made so it improves a lot if you keep it for a while, lay it on its side and turn it occasionally, some not so much.

I have found that the bigger, higher alcohol content Calilfornia ones, say 14.5%, keep well. I just went and looked and there is a 6 year old cab that is probably about peaked. Better drink it today.

I frequently buy wine when it is on sale then keep it on its side in the closet for a few years.

[recycled sixtie]

Wine in our house does not last long enough to get old. The red wine we buy is typically $8 to 16 a bottle. I cannot justify anything over $16. So we do as the above says, buy the good stuff on sale. Happy hour is 4 pm at our house but limit myself to 1.5 glasses(small glass)a day. Fortunately I can stop at that amount but can understand why it is tempting to drink and drink and....etc

[azasadny]

Beth and our friends had some Acaia Clauss Mavrodaphne after midnight last night and then gave us a bottle to take home. Any other Greek wine fans out there?

[imcarthur]

Needless to say, but old wine takes time & patience. You have to buy it on release & forget about it for 5 – 10 years, which is a lot harder than you think. This patience gets you an older wine to drink in its prime that you either can’t find or you can’t afford. The bottle posted above, I bought as a 3-lot future in 2000 for $55 each. I took delivery in 2002. It has lain undisturbed in my ‘cellar’ (a crawl space with wine racks) since that time. I drank one bottle a year ago & one bottle was corked (very rare but it does happen) & this was my last. Wine Searcher says that it would cost $230.76 to buy a bottle in the US today.

And what to buy to age? This requires some work. Narrow your choices to a few regions or styles that you like. Read the reviews, the vintage reports & barrel tastings. Read Decanter, Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate etc & join Cellar Tracker. And find a vintage chart that makes sense to your palate.

Ian

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by azasadny

Beth and our friends had some Acaia Clauss Mavrodaphne after midnight last night and then gave us a bottle to take home. Any other Greek wine fans out there?

Yes I was a fan once way back with my first wife. We had nothing else to drink but a bottle of retsina. It tasted like tree bark distilled in water. Does that qualify as old wine? Perhaps the unpronouncables above no doubt tasted better. Perhaps next time I am in the liquor store I will search for Greek wines, should be cheap? Those poor Greeks need some economic help.

[azasadny]

Yes, Retsina is at best an "acquired taste", but Mavrodaphne is really nice if you like sweet wines (ports, sauternes, sherries, late harvests, etc...). I don't think you can get a decent Retsina outside of Greece, but the Acaia Clauss Mavrodaphne is a nice desert wine for $12-15 a bottle.

[id10t]

Tuesday is usually an excellent vintage ...

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Buckterrier

Hey Shaun, Happy New Year to you. Apologies for going OT but this was cool. I'm not sophisticated enough to drink wine but last night I did have this over strawberry & pineapple wedges at a friends home. It's a 50 year old balsamic vinaigrette. VERY expensive stuff and tasted marvelous.

no apologies necessary Mark, cool stuff, thanks for sharing! Happy New Year to you as well, 2012 is going to be a great year!

[SXSMAN]

Wife and I started only in 2010 and only 4 bottles in 2011 . For us the hard part is leaving it alone and not drinking it .

I brought back a nice Brunello di Montacino (think it was an 06) but the call was too strong


We'll never know what it could have become.

[imcarthur]

Brunello di Montalcino . . . one of the triumvirate of great Italian wines: Barolo, Barbaresco & Brunello & the best iteration of the Sangiovese grape. Drinkable on release (at 5 years) but it will last & improve for many years. If you are impatient buy its early drinking brother: Rosso di Montalcino.



It has been one of my favorites for 30 years.

Ian

[SXSMAN]

Sangiovese grape .

My all time favorite !

So many great wines start with it .

I'm so there with you on that imcarthur .

Great wine area also .

[imcarthur]

Agreed. imho Sangiovese wines are the ultimate food wines. They go with everything you can put on a plate.

My inventory of Brunellos:



Ian

[SXSMAN]

It was an 02 , bought 2 years ago in Ravello , should have waited.

I remember it being excellent though .

Shaun , you a Malbec fan ?

Found a very nice one from Mendoza named Ben Marco and it can be found for less than $20 .

I have set a bottle aside.

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

This was our wine tonight.



Excellent, btw.

Ian

Edit: And I agree. Wanting older or 'properly aged' wines is why I started collecting 12 years ago. Now I am reaping the benefit.

Could I see the rest of that art deco statue? Looks cool.

[imcarthur]

Sure. It's just a modern (?) white metal casting that we bought at a local auction house. We quite like her too.





Ian