How long can I store cheap/midpriced wines?

Well, this is just my experience. i took some $4 to $10 red wines and stored them for a year to 15 months, just to see if it "helped". Well, from what I read (just in MHO) if you buy cheap wines, they are meant to be drank soon. The wines I kept were just the same after all that time. The maturing of wines come from the way they are made, not just time.

ok. just my > Hi guys,

Tannin and acidity tend to preserve a wine - they stop it going bad. In addition to that you need good intensity of fruit as that will tend to fade. These features tend to go with more expensive wines, but price is not in itself a factor. Beyond questions of whether a wine will hold out with time, there is the more difficult and subjective question of whether it will actually improve.

So... no clear answers I'm afraid. As with more expensive wines, the only definitive test is for YOU to store YOUR wines in the conditions YOU have. And for YOU to judge after the event with YOUR tastes. Not very helpful I know, but we're all in the same situation.

With better known and more expensive wines, you can also read what others have written when they have opened s[pecific wines, but even then it is of limited value unless you know their tastes and how they have stored the bottles.

HTH (but I doubt it!)

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, it does help anyway. I knew I wouldn't get 'the' answer to that question as it is a rather complex one. I'll definitely go on trying this...not the worst thing to do :-)

Asides that, I wonder why everyone buys wine shelfs if bottled wine will rather suffer than improve under household conditions. Given the availability of good vines all over the year, there's certainly no need to have your own stock in the cellar for years.

Maybe it's just like collecting stamps - it's nice to posess some valued pieces while trying to conservate them. From the consumer's (or better the wallower's) point of view, storing large amounts of wine certainly ain't an issue then.

Any, finally, a well-sorted private wine cellar is just prestigious - regardless whether you need it or not.

Just my 2 cents.

Tim

Well few wines will suffer if kept upto a year. It can be nice to be able to select from a range of wines at home, even if they are all youngish.

Availability of older wines from merchants is my main motivation for cellaring myself.

I think there is something of that for some people. Not for me.

Again, for some maybe.

Some just happen to have a suitable cellar, and it is convenient to buy a case at a time and keep it there.

"Steve Slatcher" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

And there's the common misconception that wines improve with storage. They don't... They change. Some will lament the change, others welcome it. But in the end, they'll all fade away... And they'll certainly get expensiver. Ever heard of compund interest? And scarcity - eventually, almost all bottles have been drunk up, the few left are scarce and expensive. But good? Perhaps, most likely not, however... :-) Anders

Curioulsy enough, wine is oblivious to the price at which it is sold. Price has nothing to do with a wine's ability to stand the test of time. The structure of a wine, and how it is stored are the two factors that matter.

There are a number of 'cheap' wines that have relatively good acidity, and forward tannins that will likely hold age well - and may improve over time. Assuming, of course, that you have good storage conditions. Wines that are 'light', 'soft', low acid, etc are unlikely to age well.

Stop buying "plonk" & educate your palate a bit.

The techniques mentioned in other posts apply to every level of wine.