Looking for a Wine Expert To Help me Identify Some Wine

Hello all. I really don't know much about wine. I am trying to learn slowly. I have a small wine collection, some of which I have been saving for many years. What I have come to realize is that perhaps some of the wines I have been saving are actually quite useless now and garbage. Some maybe would taste quite good. I was wondering if some of you could take a stab at letting me know which ones should be going down the drain and which ones should be good to drink. I would love to open one or two at some nice occasions soon and do not want to make anyone sick!

Thanks so much!

Here is a link for the Hi-Res photos as I can not figure out how to post them here.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/32ju48thk/

No one will get sick from drinking old wine, so don't worry about that.

I'm not familiar with many of those wines, but while some might be past their best they do not look ridiculously old to me, and should still give some pleasure - I think it depends on your personal taste as much as the actual wines. As you ask the question, I presume you are not familiar with older wines, so when you open them you might find the flavours unusual, and you should try to avoid judging them according to how young wines taste.

Maybe someone here will be able to comment in more detail. I bet some will be reluctant to follow your link, so I have posted your images here in the highest resolution allowed by the forum. Hope that is OK. (Just noticed the labels are difficult to read here - but they are a lot better in the original form)

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pic1.jpg (83.2 KiB) Viewed 483 times

Thank you for posting the pictures for me! And yes in the high res they are a little easier. I just don't want to embarrass myself if the wine is bad and I serve it to people. Thanks for the heads up!

Biggest things with these wines is going to be how they were stored. With proper storage most of them should still be good. All the Chianti and Barolo can easily survive this long. I can't tell the producer on the Hermitage, but they also are long lived.

I can also understand not wanting to serve bad wine so I would suggest opening one of them and seeing if it's not completely cooked (Storage condition). If it taste good invite over a few friends that are a little adventurous and open them up. Some may be bad, some may be legendary, you never know... I often buy weird old wines at auction just because, many of them are horrible, but some of them are wines I will remember for the rest of my life even though they were only $10...

Just my two cents...

along the lines of what Kasey said, a friend of mine has a semi annual "cull Party"..He invites some adventurous friends over, serves a wide assortment of food(Rich is a terrific cook, has a kitchen that my wife wd kill for )..The guests are forwarned that most of the wines may well be over the hill but , perhaps there might be a gem or 2..Rich and I go down to his cellar..Rich hates to part with any of his "children" as he refers to the wines whicj explains why some get kinda old and shd have been opened a long time ago,,He does have some really nice wines in his really nice cellar...we usually pick out a dozen that I think are OTH(and he is willing to part with..an ongoing but goodnatured tug of war) plus at least 2 that we feel cd be quite nice and will reward the guests..The parties have been going on for several years now and I see a lot of the same faces so they must be having a good time..The food alone is worth it..

I agree that (1) old wine can't hurt and (2) it's fine to serve - just tell people "hey, unsure how this will show, but if we don't like we'll just open another" - I do it fairly often

The only one of these I've had is the '90 Ruffino CCR d'oro. Last year : Don’t think I would have pegged this for Chianti blind, but it’s quite alive. Black plummy fruit, ripe but not roasted, a little leather, drinks more like a mature minor Right Bank Merlot, but tasty. B"

Never heard of Parussi (as opposed to Parusso) but doubt a '97 Barolo even if modern would be OTH. Ripe vintage though, so go ahead and drink up. The '97 Cafaggio Chianti as well. Most Bourgogne HCdN are drunk early, but structured year, so could be good

The Gallo might be best of bunch.
I'd think the Chianti Colline S needs to be drunk

Don't know other wines

[Jenise]

One of the wines no one else has addressed is that Jackson Triggs pinot. JT is the Gallo of Canada, and they produce wines at both ends of the country. That pinot's a Niagara. I have no idea if that means one could expect more of it (cooler climate than B.C.) or not, but where I don't think they purposefully make long-haul wines, like the Gallo cab (is that a '95? I had one about three years, it was wonderful), it could be a nice surprise.