cellar advice

How does one pick wines to cellar? I read reviews in Wine Spectator but generally can't find those wines at my local shops. My local merchant gladly recommends (usually higher priced) wines as suitable for cellaring but I always wonder if, five years from now, I'll discover he was trying to get rid of the dud that wasn't moving.

--- Don

Reply to
Sparky
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There's some advice here:

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From the fact that you need to ask the question, I think would do well to get to trust a wine mearchant. Try going along to some of the tastings he holds, and chat to other customers to try to establish how reliable he is. If he isn't trustworthy, find another one.

Reply to
Steve Slatcher

Hi Don,

I highly recommend you get yourself a copy of the most recent edition of Robert Parker's Wine Buying Guide. It is a huge paperback available at Costco and Barnes and Noble for around $20.

The Wine Spectator has its merits and its supporters, but as an 8 year veteran of wine and cellaring I cannot say I am one of them.

You might be just the opposite however. If you read at least two sets of TNs from two different critics and then taste the wines, over time you will find out whose tastes are more in line with yours and then you have a reliable guide when you need it.

As for the wine merchant, he may well be steering you towards what is slow moving. I do not know. But I do know that those new to cellaring are perfect targets.

I would suggest you grab the phone book and pay a visit to every wine and liquor store in your area some Saturday. Just check out the local scene and see who has what, and what sorts of things they recommend. From there, feel free to post those recommendations and prices here and people will let you know if you are being guided towards wines of quality at a fair price.

It is a dangerous time to be buying expensive wine. The last few vintages of Bordeaux, Rhone and Burgundy have produced some very great and very poor wines. In 1998 in particular the quality variance among even the better producers is quite dramatic.

So you are in a market where a lot of cherry picking is going on and a lot of merchants are looking to unload a lot of wine they cannot sell.

What sort of price range are you looking to spend? Do you have a 55 degree wine cellar? Do you have a way to store wines in a cool dark place around 65 degrees year round? What sort of budget could you set for a mixed case of 12 different bottles to try and see what you think of them? Do you have a particular region you are interested in, or even just red vs white wine?

If you can post or email answers to those questions, I and others will be able to provide more specific guidance and even suggest some good wines to seek in your area.

Take care,

Tom.

PS- The best way to seek good cellaring wines is to try as many as possible on release and start making notes with your own predictions. Over time you will learn to spot good balance and long term potential in a wine. Even now I still drink just about everything I buy on release- even the expensive wines that will need 20-30 years to mature. It is the only way to be confident about how long you want to hold the wine- and more importantly if you like it! When cellaring a wine for 10 years, that wine being a great wine is not enough in my book. I have to personally like it too :)

Reply to
Elpaninaro

Hi Larry,

Thank you for your kind words. I am not over here too often these days, but feel free to email anytime.

I have very little experience with Australian wine- Burgundy and Bordeaux are my main areas- but I have had a couple of 2001 Syrahs and found them most impressive. I think they were McLaren's Vale or something like that.

From what I have tasted, this seems to be a very good vintage. As for long term cellaring I am afraid I am not one to ask about that for Australian wines. But I have found that most powerful wines of this type that are well made will usually evolve nicely for 2-3 years at least.

A couple of years ago I had a Rosemount $10 Shiraz that someone had cellared for 3 years and I found it had developed quite nicely.

Take care,

Tom.

Reply to
Elpaninaro

You didn't ask me, but I'l say that Aussie wines vary from drink now, to drink now or keep. Definitely buy and drink some now, if you can, buy enough to keep and slowly drink out of your supply. That way you can see how wines that start out one way, evolve. Given that Aussie wines generally drink well on release, buy a case, and open a bottle a year to see how it's going. If you reach a point where it seems to be declining, either throw a party to finish it, or don't touch it for 5 years and see if it died completely or came back. ;)

cheers.

Reply to
Ray Wong

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