Being new to wine making, I had yet to age a bottle past 12 months, except by accident. We love the wine so much we find it nearly impossible to save it, except by accident. One bottle we have saved is a bottle of "mystery" wine. Laying in the rack for quite some time, the label was long gone and we just passed it over for one that was identifiable. We finally opened it and, much to our surprise, it was the best bottle of wine that we can remember ever having- ever.
Going back to the wine log and sorting out the cork type, 1.5 L bottle size etc. we realized it was the first Cabernet we ever made- A Brew King Selection bottled 3/9/02. We saved it by mistake! The morale of this story is that if you can save back bottles for a couple of years, you will be more than rewarded for the time spent saving it. The other point is that if you journalize your bottle sizes and cork types when bottling, and the shrink top style and color, you can track down that mystery wine years later.
Thanks for a wonderful NG.
KB STL Missouri