Drink up!

Back in the nineties I started buying and ‘laying down’ fine wine. It followed on the back of some 10-15 years of buying and drinking young Bordeaux. This was a great way of discovering different communes and the varietal composition of certain wines and to a certain extent, their potential to age; they were mostly satellite regions from the Medoc and right bank… rarely did I find an affordable Margaux or Pauillac. When I started to lay down (inbound) wines, it followed a calculated look at what was performing well and would age well for the budget I had. My romantic idea was simply to enjoy lovely wines with my love when we were older and more appreciative of things..I began to realise that even the wines I was buying (3rd-5th growth Bordeaux’s) would plateau and slowly start to decline well before my wife and I were retired and enjoying the finer things. The reality is unlike the notion of an optimum peak which drops away into oblivion. Fine wine will remain at a plateau for many years, ‘ageing’ wine is an act of hope and optimism, laced with fear and dread. Fear of waiting not long enough or too long, storing it wrong or just missing out on what could have been or what was once! It is important to note that wine doesn’t age towards an aged ‘peak’. Bottles improve along a gentle arc, and show many expressions as they move on their journey.. A good example of this are white Burgundies, possible the greatest expression of Chardonnay here, the combination of climate, soil and tradition cannot be replicated elsewhere. There are four main areas of production and depending on which will determine how and when to age/drink the wine. A Borgogne Blanc with its simple apple/mineral notes should be drunk soon after release, within 2-3 years. Chablis and Maconaise are more complex with notes ranging from apple and citrus to tropical Honeydew and pineapple. Top end Chablis have great ageing of 10-20 years. The longer they age, what started as youthful tarter, lime zest and quince may morph to add brine, Brie rind, yoghurt and white flowers. Cote de Beaune wines are the most powerful of all Chardonnays, fleshier apple, pear, quince and yellow plum. Ther are also additions of earthy aromas of mushroom or truffle and with the use of barrel ageing, hints of cinnamon, toasted almonds and brioche are present. Wines (both red and white) that have been made in this way: Bordeaux, Burgundies, and Barolos etc. will, for the first ten years of their life be closed down underneath a cloak of acid tannins, and are not balanced. Ten years on, and lots more subtle expressions appear. A white Rhone, for example, in its youth may be a vivacious, floral with high mineralogy. Twenty years on and they become transcendent and ethereal. There was an issue a while back with white Burgundies in the mid 1990s, where the young wines were prematurely ageing or experiencing premature oxidation (premox); it was not consistent with every wine so could not be explained by vintage, producer or grape. Factors included soft pressing or excessive removal of lees which protect the juice from oxidation. Batonage (lees stirring) which can be oxidative, or most likely, the change on corks. This was a big problem between 1995-2002. Early symptoms being a darker colour, a honey or toast and sometime Cognac aroma, and later, a full orange-gold colour and sherry like flavours. The best time to open a bottle is subjective on the wine and your taste. A good idea is to buy multiple bottles and open at regular intervals thus keeping a track on its ageing. With single bottles it’s the structure, tannins, acidity and concentration that are obvious signs of the ability to age. Ultimately it is balance one is looking for, the sense that all the components have come together in proper proportions.