Mature Wines

Some lucky people of wine making countries inherit a cache of old vintages of excellent wines

If you visit any wine cellar you will often find a section which is closed with a lock - these comprise often the best and the oldest vintages of the house.

Some wines are meant to be drunk young, while the acidity and aromas; body and flavours are intense and young, often a year or so old for whites; three or four years for the reds. However, more complex wines develop with age, destined from the vintage quality and style of making it. You just need to stock it right and have rudimentary knowledge of wines in case you are not having a good winemaker as a friend.

Decision of Good Vintage 

It is not an adhoc decision taken by a group or an individual. Of course, the weather is there for everybody to notice so the first seal of vintage possibility comes from there. Then the local bodies and consortiums take over and finally the international wine critics give their points and prices for that wine, which give the final stamp of credibility to its vintage value.

A good vintage wine is supposed to mature well. If ordinarily a winemaker suggests to enjoy his wine young (less than 2-3 years), a good vintage could take an extra three in the bottle. Then there are wine makers whose style of wines have been perfected to an extent that almost every year is good in vintage years they do even better than their usual.

Respect, Age and Stress

Though a lucky few have drank wines as old as 120 odd years, our experience has been limited to 1948 French sweet wine; a Bordeaux from early 1960s; a 1959 Pinotage and a couple of old Brunello of early 1970s. The most common denominator here was the respect given to these wines by the winemaker.