Tag Archives: aged wines

October 20, 2013 · 4:17 PM

Managing a Personal Wine Collection

Years back I realized… once the number of bottles you lay down exceeds your ability to remember them, one of two things will happen:

  1. Curse your aging brain and struggle on

  2. Give in and realize there must be a better way

WHY Manage Stored Wine?

Initially, I was too proud to give-in and track my wine. After the issue bubbled to the surface (added sparkling to my cellar 🙂 ) it became clear, not having the ability to generate a list, or establish drinking windows, significantly affected our enjoyment of the wine. It doesn’t matter whether you drink wine daily, or just on the weekend. You will begin to realize (as I did), managing your wine inventory is a key component to maximizing your investment and enhancing your wine experience. So, the next step is to go totally overboard (like the crazy person I am) and put the program together.

Pick Your App/Software

I settled on CellarTracker. That has turned out to be a good decision. I highly recommend this cloud-based app, not just for cellar management, but for the tasting notes and the community too.

Separate the Inventory to be Bottle-Aged

So you disturb this wine as little as possible.

Identify the lower-priced daily-drinkers and rack separately

You will go through this wine quickly enough. It will not require a controlled environment.

Calculate your annual consumption of bottle-aged wines

Let’s round your hypothetical collection to 100 bottles (insert your own quantity). One possibility – assume you drink a nice bottle every other weekend, or round to 25 btls/yr. Purchase your wines to be bottle aged separately from those for drinking now. In this scenario, simply buy 25 bottles for aging every year… this assumes that every wine has the same aging capacity. The annual number of bottles is important. Knowing your number will save you money down the road, when competitively shopping your purchases. Don’t forget to add wine to your calculation and include a party, or two and a few dinners with friends and wine…

Wine Purchases Should be Planned

Plan Purchases so groupings of your aged wine will be constantly maturing and ready to drink

I can’t think of a better reason to diversify your cellar with Red Blends, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, etc. These varietals (depending on winemaker’s style) typically bottle age at different rates. If you can’t wait the 3-4 years it takes to develop your own collection of 5+ year old aged wines, supplement your buying with older vintages from auction sites (like WinBid.com, WineCommune.com, Hart-Davis Hart), or you can ensure provenance by buying from well-known brokers (like Benchmark).

OK, I am outed. I am a real wine geek.

Just to let you know, these are some of the same basic strategies needed for managing a commercial wine cellar. Coming down the pike… more posts on: Why cellar wine? and Wine Buying Strategies (in states where laws allow).

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October 19, 2013 · 11:11 AM

The 100 Point Wine Rating Scale has Become…

As wine media has begun reaching the consumer and wine critics are becoming rock stars… You have to ask yourself, just exactly how does this rating system work? On many websites, you will find an attempt at an explanation that reflects how the major critics SEEM to interpret it, but… does anyone really know definitively? There are no hard and fast rules. So hear is a quick look under the hood from the perspective of using the ratings as a method of selecting wines for your cellar.

As you walk through wine websites, you begin to notice there are virtually no ratings under 80, or over 95. I think the worst rating I have ever given a wine is 82. Of course this seems absurd, but regardless, if this is the standard… what do the ratings really mean? If you are the type that needs to make sense of this mess, follow me on my journey.

Criteria for the System

What exactly do the ratings evaluate: drinkability, age-worthiness, structure, balance? How do you compare entirely different styles using the scale: red, white, old-world, new world, sweet, fortified, etc. I am sure you get my drift here. Every critic’s wine notes and evaluation process is based on a different standard, therefore there is no frame of reference for the consumer. So, do the ratings have any real value, or are they just marketing ploys? Well, perhaps the intent is entirely marketing-focused, but I believe I have found ways the ratings can assist me in my wine purchasing decisions:

Assumptions

The majority of wine critics (AND fine wines collectors) have developed an educated palate. This assumption is important and I think largely true. I know for myself, I may not like a wine that others view as enjoyable, but that does not mean I cannot appreciate its quality. If the winemaker has produced a quality wine in its structure, balance and extracted flavors/aromas… I will not give it a poor score, even when I do not care for the wine personally. Again, I think this to be largely the case with the most (but not all) professional/semi-professional critics. the breaking point here for me is at 90. If the wine is rated 90, or over from several sources, odds are – it is a quality wine… but that does not guarantee that YOU will enjoy it. It is simply a place to start weeding out bottles not worth the investment. In my case, I know, I am missing many wines I might enjoy in the 85-89 range, but I try to visit wineries to sample what I can of those.

Callibrating Your Palate

Calibrate a particular critic’s palate to yours. Take a few minutes to taste wine and compare your impressions to the critics ratings and find one that generally matches your impressions. In my case, of the major critics, I think Stephen Tanzer is the closest to my palate. It is worth the time to find your match. I place a little more weight on an evaluation, when ST writes the note. Again that is just me personally.

Should the System be Changed?

I have read and many have explained to me that winemaking technology has improved tremendously over the last two decades and therefore there truly is no more “bad” wine… which is the reason why ratings do not drop below 80 any longer. I am willing to accept that, but if that is the case, then we MUST move to another system. I also believe a criteria for a new ratings system needs to be established. When I choose to purchase wines I have not tasted, here is my criteria:

  • Structure and balance: acidity, tannins, all the parts work together? Fuller, rounder wine with a mid-palate?
  • Fruit: fruit-forward, or not
  • Texture: wine coats your mouth, or crisp and clean
  • Terroir: the wine includes an expression of the local terroir?
  • Finish: flavors linger?

IMHO, if we rated each of these categories 1-10, that would provide a useful wine rating and evaluation!

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October 16, 2013 · 9:58 PM

When is Winemaking Art?

OK, for you collectors that have a large cellar that you cherish, this is for you…

Age-Worthy Wines

I am often surprised by critic’s characterizations of wines that will age well. I see five years, ten years, thrown out there all the time, without a clear justification. I want to know WHY a wine deserves to be called “AGE-WORTHY”. No, there is no mystery to the educated palate that is inscrutable to the rest of the world (unlike what some critics would like you to believe). I think most who have already been introduced to wine and lay down at least a few bottles know that red wines without acidity and tannins, do not handle bottle aging well. What I almost never hear is a discussion of balance and structure. This is what defines age-worthy wines. Tasting notes for wines the industry typically views as age-worthy should focus on this aspect. I have not experienced many wines that magically “come together” in the bottle. When some element is missing, or one aspect overshadows the rest, more time in the bottle will just make what was suspect in the first place, a more subdued version of the same mess.

Art in Wine

So, where does art fit into this picture? When a winemaker can coax a balance of acidity/tannins/alcohol/aromas-flavors/textures from a variable fruit crop, year after year. Any winery can make a fruit bomb, an easy drinker, or leverage an appelation’s fame – like Rutherford’s dusty tannins… but winemaking talent and the quality it produces is most often evident in balance, structure and harmony. It is like Vivaldi writing for a string quartet, the greater understanding of how the parts join to comprise the whole.

So, shouldn’t the industry be helping you to recognize these balanced, structured wines that you can still pop now if you must? I am at a loss to understand why there is so little mention of this topic in the majority of professional critics’ tasting notes. Having developed an appreciation for the issue, the only wines that truly send a shiver down my spine are these perfectly balanced young gems. I have almost a reverence for the talent required to produce a red wine that, while accessible young, still has tremendous aging potential. If you need an example, the 2009 Sassicaia I tasted recently struck me as such a wine. Perhaps you can help engage the industry in this discussion? It feels lonely out there on this topic…

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