TN: old Macon and Beaujolais, nice Riesling, plus bubblles, Barolo, etc

Dale At what temperature do you maintain your cellar? Mine is cool and stable but a bit warmer than the pundits recommend. However, some of my wines that are recommended for drinking, are still a bit "behind". Graham

first course of clams and linguine, then couple small rib chops along with pimenton cauliflower.

h not truly oxidized. Apples/cider, a nutty hint, tired, some chalky notes hinting it would have good a while ago. C+/B-

My cellar is passive (belowgrade rubble walls on 2 sides, drywall with 4 in ches insulation on 2 sides facing basement). Temperature range at eye level from about 66-67 F at end of summer/Sept to 48-50 in Feb/March. No daily c hanges. I also have overflow at my office that's similar (maybe gets to 70) and professional storsge for some wine I expect to hold for long long time . I've generally been happy with results.

This was not from my cellar but from a recent private sale. Of course, 23 y ears is longer than anyone holds Pouilly-Fuisse, even Ferret. It was cheap enough ($20) to take a chance- a friend had bought from same cellar with go od results. The Fleurie ($10) & Taittinger ($25) were from same sale, I'm interested enough in novelty/variety to take a flyer on things like that.

Many thanks! Mine is also a passive, uninsulated, concrete basement. The storage area usually maintains a fairly stable temperature in the 14-15C range (57-59F) in the winter and 16-17C (61-63F) in the summer. Several knowledgeable wine buffs have been telling me to drink up my 2004 clarets, but they are still not ready, and they are a mix of 1st to 5th Growths. I don't buy privately but occasionally there are obvious joblots of wines that the agents can't shift, being sold at bargain prices.

My cellar is also passively cooled, below grade and insulated. Living in a region that experiences enormous temperature swings (lows of

-10°F/-23°C, highs of 100°F/38°C), I was concerned about temperature stability in the cellar, but an excursion thermometer shows that in the coldest winter the lowest cellar temperature is 45°F/7°C and in the hottest summer the cellar will reach 63°F/17°C, which is within my range of comfort, metaphorically speaking.

Dale and I some years ago participated in a trial where we stored several wines in temperature unregulated locations (in my case, a closet on the top floor of our house) for several years and compared them to bottles of the same wine stored in our cellars. The results were interesting in that the effect was less pronounced than I think anyone had anticipated, but the cellar-stored wines were marginally fresher and fruitier.

In examining bottles stored long-term in our cellar, I've found them to be in good shape and comparable in most ways to bottles of the same wine stored in "temperature-controlled" conditions, though mine often show a bit more mature than wines stored at a constant 55°F/13°C. Since I'm not getting any younger, this "problem" bothers me less and less :)

Mark Lipton

I agree that temperature variation per se does not seem to make to very much difference. Much of my wine is kept in a brick outbuilding with some insulation and the better wines either kept in their orginal wooden boxes stacked together with an insulation jacket round the stack or in clay land drains stacked on top of each other against an inside wall. In the latter, with a bottle in it, temperatures range between over the seasons between about 42F and 67F - so slightly wider than Mark's range. However comparing maturity of some of the same wines inherited from my father, who had kept them at a constant wine fridge temperature, although mine are a little more advanced. Like Mark I too am getting to a stage where I mind that less than I might once have done. I think the key may well be that any change in temperature is very gradual over the year so that it has less effect than, say, keeping a wine in a room which regularly flutuates in temperature between day and night. (I have noticed that even lesser wines brought up to drinking temperature naturally are better than those which, on occasion, I have immersed in a bath of tepid water when I have had to deal with an emergency need for a bottle. I don't know if there is any scientific supprt for that or if it is just me fearing I have offended the bottle and expecting a difference.)

Tim Hartley

rst course of clams and linguine, then couple small rib chops along with pi menton cauliflower.

not truly oxidized. Apples/cider, a nutty hint, tired, some chalky notes hi nting it would have good a while ago. C+/B-

?? Riesling. Not labelled as trocken, this is pretty close, just slight ly off-dry. Big, vibrant acids, lime and peach with some light herbsl notes and long minerally finish. Took a while but I’m becoming Keller fa n B+/A-

??s short ribs, risotto, and salad)

t, appley, and simple. C+

nutty/briochey notes, but plenty of fizz and apple/pear/lemon fruit. More complex than a recent release. B+/B

, but plenty of black cherry and currant fruit, some tobacco leaf, earth. J ust entering drinking window. Not especially complex, but this was $16 on r elease. B/B+

post concert party, the

ht past it, but as initial bottle funk blew away nice black plum and cherry fruit showed up, with saddle leather and cedar notes. Good acids, finish n ot real long but nice wine for a couple hours. Then it began to crack up, d isjointed and with emerging ashtray. But till then solid B.

rm, got rental in Atlanta and headed north. Met college roommate and his wi fe at a tavern, I had shrimp and grits and a glass of 2015 Whitehaven Sauvi gnon Blanc. Soft, hint of sweetness, apple and lemongrass, some grassy note s, ok. B-

e, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objecti vity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

My cellar is an active cellar which I maintain at 55F ad 70% humidity. It' s been this way since 1991. My wines generally are in excellent shape as m ost were purchased on release. I have very old wines that I bought or were gifts that I cant prove provenance on but for the most part I have very fe w wines that have gone bad pr aged prematurely. That being said...some win es were just not built to last and others that I figured were long since ov er the hill were shockingly youthful so you can never tell until you open t hem.