Same story: here's Dale's recent contribution on the subject of purchasing commemorative wines, as edited by yours truly. All comments...
---------------- Begin C&P -------------------
- I want to buy a bottle of wine to commemorate the birth of a child, to be opened 18 (21) years from now. What should I get?
There are no ageworthy wines that will be released within the year of the vintage. The first barrel tastings would occur the following year, and release probably the year after that (longer for some wines). There might be Southern Hemisphere wines (maybe harvested in April) with barrel tastings within the year, but they wouldn't be released. For a gift, you might try to think of another recent year that has significance for the parent (anniversary, perhaps). If the parents aren't wine people, with real wine storage, Madeira would be safest bet. Next best would be Vintage Port. Sweet wines from the Loire are another category that stand abuse better than most. Even those would benefit from a cool basement. But ageable dry wines (Bordeaux, Piedmont, Burgundy, CalCab, etc) and offdry white wines (Germans, Loires) are almost certain to be ruined if stored in a closet. If they have better storage there are many possibilities, feel free to ask the group as to what was good in a particular year. Another possibility might be a mixed case, to increase the probability of something doing well for 21 years.
As to wines to lay down for a child, as noted it will be tough to have even nominal information till the following year. Then you can look at what classic agers (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont, California Cabernet, Australian wines such as Grange, Port, German or Austrian Rieslings, Loire sweet wines, Rhones, etc) did well in that year and decide based on your budget. Again, decent storage conditions will be critical.
---------------- End C&P ----------------------
Mark Lipton