Drink now to…….

I have been struck recently by how often critics’ reviews have informed the reader that “this Barolo can be drunk right away”. Let us not be fooled by the full extent of the pressure on wine producers today to make their wines very drinkable on release. Even the grand chateau of Bordeaux or the makers of Hermitage or indeed Barolo must produce a wine that is pleasant to drink on release, even if everyone would agree the best still lies years ahead. A wine simply must be immediately enjoyable. The restaurant business demands this because they don’t have the resources to hold wine. And so does the consumer, who rightly takes the view that a great wine will taste great in its youth also and they should be free to drink it whenever they choose.

So in relation to the question of when to drink a wine meant for longer aging, the answer today is simply a matter of personal preference. Of course all quality wines can be drunk immediately. Thirty years of improvements in wine making and especially tannin management have ensured this. It is not poison.

One can legitimately like wines fresh, with pure fruit uncomplicated by the tertiary and savory notes that long aging brings. One can admire freshness over complexity. So you drink your wines young - all types of wine, even those meant for long aging. These grand wines still show something special in their youth - a different kind of quality and beauty but quality and beauty nonetheless. 

This is no less true of whites than of reds.

And I do not judge those who prefer their Barolo on the younger side. Some like their pizza with thick crust. Some prefer their pasta softer than I. Some put cream and sugar in their coffee. Who am I to judge ? 

But i think there is one time during which no one should prefer to drink a wine - and that is when the fruit is really tight and when the wine is really closed up. The nose is very restrained. Tightness on the palate affects the sense of texture and generosity of fruit. I find the rosebud analogy helpful. Looking at a rosebud just about to open one can sense a coiled spring about to release itself. But it is too soon to pick that bud.  There is so much more beauty still to come. And so it is with wine.  Some vintages hold this tightness of fruit for a long time - 2005 red Burgundies at the higher quality levels have still not unfurled and become relaxed. Others - like those from the 2007 vintage - were open on release and never tighten up. Red wines intended to be aged can go though a closed period of a few years - perhaps three to six or seven years after the vintage. Some vintages never go through this dumb phase. Some types of wine are more prone to this closed period than others. You can try and coax some life into the wine in a decanter. But ultimately no-one should prefer to drink wine that is tight because it will give neither the fresh young beautiful fruit so admired by those who like their wines young nor yet the fully expressed layered complexity sought by the patient.  I think it is true that while almost any wine can be drunk on release - and I do not denigrate critics who so assert - but a critic should also respect the likelihood in some vintages that the wine will shut down for several years after the first one or two years in bottle. And while of course you can drink it during this closed period it would be a shame to do so. That is not a style preference. No one should most enjoy the wine during this closed period.

My personal preferences are still developing but are these -

1 I like dry whites on the younger side. I find the weight whites put on with age not always to my liking except in a few particular cases. A great white Burgundy with a lot of age can be faith restoring in its beauty but I now seldom wait 20 years. Gerard Boudot at Domaine Sauzet told me in 1994 that there is an inflection point at which white burgundies become a completely different wine - especially on the nose. This change occurs at about eight or nine years. My experience aligns with that.

2 I find many less prestigious reds can last and improve over much longer periods given good storage. For example I seldom drink a red St. Joseph younger than ten years, even though the books say you should have drunk it by then. This of course is entirely a matter of my personal preference. Nor is capacity to improve with time in bottle the monopoly of well known international grape varieties. Just to illustrate the point, there are surely at least a dozen Italian grape varieties worth laying down a while. I have laid down some Frappato just to see if it gets interesting.

3 Some wines age less reliably over long periods than others. White Burgundies I rarely keep more than ten years. Premature oxidation is not yet completely behind us. Red Burgundies seem to me to age less reliably well over 25 + years in bottle than Bordeaux. And I find I like my red burgundies to have some fruit left. I don’t want a glass tasting of nothing but decaying leaves, leather and mushrooms. Older Barolos can be pretty variable. Recent improvements in winemaking may be helpful to improving the reliability of the wine over time, but it may also simply be that Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo will never age as consistently over the very long haul as Cabernet Sauvignon. If nine out of ten Pauillacs are still good at 30 years, maybe only seven out of ten Barolos and six out of ten Burgundies are all that you would hope for. Perhaps the perfect progression of Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir is simply more dependent on impeccable storage conditions than Cabernet Sauvignon, which may be more forgiving. The evolution in bottle of different grape types probably merits a separate post. That is another reason why I am skeptical of blends, especially super Tuscans. Grapes don’t age at the same rate. So at 25 years you may have some reason to be concerned.

4 I age Champagne in the cellar. Less bubbles. More refinement.

5 I am not yet fully convinced about aging dry Riesling. I have some put away and we will see. I came fairly recently to dry riesling and so my views are not yet fully formed. But I am unsure if the fullness of body that aging brings sits well with a wine that I think of as being light and refreshing. The fault is no doubt mine. It will only take a single bottle of truly great dry riesling at 20 years to change my mind. I just haven’t drunk it yet. Bring on the Clos st Hune !

6 I try hard to keep my hands off desert wines for a long time. Time allows the sweetness to become less sugary and integrate into the wine. Sauternes, beerenauslese, icewein and Jurancon really change for the better after 20 years and continue to get more interesting still as they age longer. If you press me I like sweet Riesling best of all. You don’t need much but they are the perfect end to a meal as it lingers pleasantly into the small hours.

7 Opinions change. This brings some regrets as your preferences move away from something you now wish you had bought less of. But there is upside too. It has took me twenty years but I now appreciate the wonder that is Chateauneuf du Pape. That’s OK. But I still give it 15 years !