How do you pick wine to cellar?

Hi,

Last time I popped in to my local wine shop I bought, on a whim, a bottle of Glaetzer Bishop. The guy behind the counter was pretty forthright that I could drink it now if I wanted, but it would be a dreadful waste and would be much improved by several years in storage.

This begged a question for me. If I keep this wine for a few years, pull it out, decide that it's delicious and want more (and possibly some more expensive Glaetzer products) I'm then faced with cellaring my new case for another few years before I drink it, which would be hugely unfortunate.

So how do you pick high-quality wines that you want to buy in bulk and store? I'm well aware that you can taste wines first but for me that Glaetzer - and virtually anything else that's worth storing for a reasonable time - cross an uncomfortable barrier whereby it's just on the too expensive side for me to buy a bottle to try, or indeed to ask the merchant to open a bottle for me to try. Are they likely to be more willing if they think I might be tempted into buying a whole case?

Another side to this question is that I find myself constantly torn between the desire to sample new things and the desire to buy my favorites in bulk and keep them to see how they age. I don't have the time to go to organised tastings and I rarely open more than one bottle in a week so I simply don't consume enough to do both Does anyone else find themselves caught in this manner? How do you resolve it?

well, you don't really have to do the research, because it's already been done for you.
There really is only a small percentage of the world's wines produced for "laying down" aka aging.

If you have no idea what they are, you could do worse than to find a merchant you trust, and take his or her advice.
There are far more kinds of wines built for aging than I could list here, but relative to all the wines made, it still only amounts to a handful.

One of the (many) mistakes I made as a fledgling wine enthusiast was trying to age wines I shouldn't have, and drinking others too young.
I will say that I would rather drink a wine too early than too late.

A good question, and I have made numerous mistakes answering it, usually by wasting valuable cellar space on something not ageworthy.
But there are two things to go by.
History, either observed by you personally or others have noted. If you have a personal experience with a wine that comes into its best period in 5 years and starts downhill at 8, that will at least be a guide, subject to the second factor, when you buy another. If you haven't tasted a wine, the net and books are full of references to past vintages and when they have been drinking best. You may never have had a given 2nd growth pauillac, but lots of others have and history may suggest the best drinking window for that wine, again subject to the second factor.
Tasting it, either yourself or relying on others who have. While a given wine may vary in drinkability/ageworthiness from year to year, either you or others who have tasted it may be able to assess how a given year stacks up against prior vintages. It took almost no time for the pundits to note that 1997 was a year in which bordeaux was not likely to be long lived. And that info is widely available. Parker's vintage charts, for example, are on the net, as are others.
As to "what to buy" for putting in the cellar, that's up to you. You may want to buy only things that require 5 or 10 years before reaching optimum drinkability. I buy some for the long haul, some for a few years, and some for right now, keeping an eye on what I have so that I don't end up with too much that is about to go over the hill at any one time. And I generally don't buy anything in bulk (more than 3 bottles) without trying it first. If I like it, and if I agree with the experts on its ageability, and if it fills a particular need for that time frame, I might buy. If not, its a pass.
Sorry for the longish answer, and if I missed your real question.

Top question!

The easiest way to pick wines for cellaring is those that have a track record allowing you to taste older versions and judge whether it's for you or not. Even if you've not tasted it, a wine like (say) Wynns Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon has a good reputation for taking age, so buying a six pack and sampling as it ages is not a tough decision. I take a punt with a large number of wines I buy, but usually it's because there's a track record there (I've a rough view where it will peak, but not always a clear view of whether I'll like it - but I'm happy with the gamble).

For me I'm unsure about the advice, as the Glaetzer style is big fruit, big oak & the jury is out on many of these sort of wines. Some will trip up like the show ponies they are. Others will be proven to be great wines over a long timescale. Penfolds Grange is the target for many of them (a wine that indeed ages fabulously) - but are they crude copies or genuine pretenders?

If you like the taste, then maybe buy a couple more bottles and take a small gamble.

Otherwise look for wines with a strong cellaring track record. For Oz the annual guide by Jeremy Oliver (onwine) is very useful, though Halliday's Wine Companion is good and more widely available. FWIW Oliver has this wine as a 5-8 year wine at best, so he's not convinced at this early stage.

How can you tell yourself? Well even the professional wine critics would struggle without an extensive tasting history to fall back on. For newer wines they have to take a punt based on the perceived balance, plus the depth/quality of the key components for ageing, which (depending on the wine) are fruit quality, acidity, sweetness, alcohol (differing views on this), tannin. At times they get it badly wrong. To understand how difficult it is, try a young Aussie Hunter Semillon and an aged version. You'd never guess one would transform into the other.

Stop asking good questions as they take too long to answer

regards

Ian

One more thing to add

In days gone by, buying a case of 12 bottles was perhaps more normal and offered a chance to see the development of a wine. Arguably these days the half case of 6 bottles is becoming more common and is pretty much as good for seeing a wine develop.

In your shoes, with a great inquisitive mind, I'd focus on tasting widely, but put the odd few bottles aside of wines that:
a) you like (if only as a broad category)
b) have a track record with ageing

that might mean buying 3-6 bottles of a wine, but only a dozen if you are really confident and/or get a great price. In other instances buy single bottles and have a view on ageing sycle for them, but drink when you fancy cracking the bottle. Think of them as tasting bottles that you may take a few years to getting round to. The one thing that will remain true, is that there will be plenty of more wine that will appeal, so don't ever worry that you're missing out on an opportunity.

regards

Ian

The one thing that will remain true, is that there will be plenty of more wine that will appeal, so don't ever worry that you're missing out on an opportunity.
Ian

How absolutely true that is, a fact which I unfortunately ignored too many times.

Thanks for the replies.

I've currently dealt with the situation by having a box in my storage cupboard which contains wine "to be drunk only when everything else has run out" ... so the idea is that we drink all the everyday first and then, in a year or two, we might get round to the special box.

The problem with this is, of course, that I can't resist topping up the everyday stock in the meantime .

The other problem is, of course, that five out of the six bottles in the special stock are ones I've no tried before and might be horrible. I've also a sneaking suspicion that two of them aren't up to much in any case. Currently we've got:

Two 2003 left-bank Bordeaux wines, one of which I've tried and is fantastic, the other of which is probably ageworthy judging purely on price.

One Medoc and a 1er Cru Chablis, both of which I bought at a "too good to be true" price in the Tesco wine festival, so they probably are.

The Glaetzer Bishop.

A Roero Nebbiolo, which I assumed was ageworthy purely because it was made from Nebbiolo This needed saving because I really thought it likely to need partnering with a meal to enjoy at its best, and I rarely get the opportunity to drink wine with a meal at home.

I'm sorely tempted to expand this little collection with some Mas d'en Gil Coma Vella, because it's utterly fantastic and seems thick enough to be worth trying a few years in the bottle.

I suppose I really ought to just get on and drink the lot, maybe just pulling them out on special occasions. Although those two from Tesco probably ought to get drunk before they get any worse

Lots of good advice here.

Especially I would emphasize the maxim that, in the words of Robert Parker, "There will always be another great vintage". When starting out, don't feel that you must pay through the nose for old, great wines. Build your cellar from the newer vintages, and you'll find after a decade that you've acquired your own collection of old, great wines.

Also try to avoid the twin pitfalls for the beginner: under-buying and over-buying. If you buy too few of a wine you intend to cellar, then you have the agony of deciding when the proper moment to open that only, precious bottle of the stuff that's in your cellar. On the other hand, if you over-buy, you can be faced with the prospect of having a bunch of undrunk wine that's going over the hill. I try to buy at least 3 of anything I intend to cellar, and rarely more than 6. Maybe a case for something like vintage Port that has a very long lifetime.

When starting out, you also have to pace your purchases of wines that need lots of aging. The hazard is buying lots of wine that needs aging right up front, and then you find yourself after a few years with a cellar bursting at the seams with wine you don't want to drink for 5-10 more years. Mix wine for short-term consumption with stuff you wish to cellar at first.

-Paul W.

So how do you pick high-quality wines that you want to buy in bulk and store?

Well, on the one hand, you can trust the Pro's - Parker, Tanzer, Meadows, Schildknecht - and their opinions.

[Although Schildknecht, to his credit, has been honest enough recently to admit that wine evolution in bottle is such an incredibly complex phenomenon that he doesn't anymore even trust his own judgment about predicting drinking windows.]

Personally, I place a great deal of faith in "time to oxidation" - I like to follow a bottle over the course of five days or more, waiting to see how long it takes for the wine to oxidize.

If it's completely dead on "Day Two", then it's not something I'm interested in pursuing.

BTW, flaws like TCA, "metallic" Brett, residual sugar masquerading as fruit [which is a good thing in some wines, but a bad thing in others, such as ostensibly dry whites], etc, are much easier to detect on Day Two [and thereafter] - when you first open a wine on Day One, it can strike you as being a little strange, but often you won't be able to figure out what's wrong with it until Day Two, when the flaws will suddenly be transparently obvious.

The other great thing about tasting before buying [in bulk] is that you get a better sense of the provenance of the wine - in general, you guys in the UK probably don't have as much of a problem with heat damage as we have in the USA, but if you taste in small quantities before buying in bulk [from the same source], then at least you will know that you aren't purchasing vinegar [which can be huge problem here in the USA].

Anyway, at some point you have to place some faith in yourself: If you enjoy the wine, if you've studied it amply [to make sure that it doesn't suddenly fall apart and become disgusting soon after opening], and if it's priced aggressively - i.e. if you've tasted other wines of its ilk, and if it stands out among its peers as being a special value - then don't lose any sleep over purchasing it.

I've learned a lot from the answers to your post - all from people I've come to respect since I began visiting this forum. One thing I did not see in the responses was what I do quite a bit of: read everything wine related.
For me, it started with this example: I read in the mid 1980s that, with all the attention being paid to the wonderful 1982 Bordeaux wines, the 1983 wines were being ignored. I read in another source that the 1983 wines, specifically in Margaux wines were even better than the 1982s. I bought as many of the '83s as I could and at bargain prices.
If I had not been reading, I never would have put two and two together and I'm so glad that I did.
Most importantly - Have fun!