How long is a piece of string

Or to put it more accurately, how long can you cellar a particular wine for with confidence? By way of background, during the week I opened a bottle of the recently released 99 Houghtons Franklin River Shiraz and initially the wine had ultra smooth seamless tannins and lip smacking lashings of sweet fruit, yummy stuff.

As I was analysing the wine and trying to work out its ageing potential, alarm bells went off, the wine was so good now and the tannins so ultra fine (I had difficulty detecting them,) I wondered if it was a drink now wine or one that was capable of ageing.

To me this wine seemed like a drink now wine so I checked my favourite two experts. James Halliday rated the wine at 94 points and said “Black fruits, spice, and a subliminal hint of sweet earth/forest run through the long palate, with oak playing a pure support role. Two gold medals tell only part of the tale. Drink 2004-14”

And then I checked Jeremy Oliver who rated the wine at 17 out of 20 in part had written “Made in the modern ripe and oaky show pony style…. Good richness, weight and fine tannins. Drink 2004-2007.”

Both Oliver and Halliday thought the wine would start to peak around 2004 and last for at least three more years, with Halliday thinking it will last till its 15 years old.

So who is right and who is wrong? (This isn’t being written to have a shot at either Halliday or Oliver as both have far more skill than I have, but to show difficult judging wines ageability can be.) Ultimately time itself will provide the answer, but in this case I predict that both of them are wrong. I had the advantage of not simply tasting the wine for a few minutes; I drank it over a period of over 4 hours. By the time four hours had elapsed, the tannins started to come become very obvious and went from ultra soft to aggressive mouth puckering drying tannins. Was the wine falling apart, to me that seemed like the case and that does not bode well for those wishing to cellar this wine till 2014 as Mr Halliday suggested.

Now lets pick another example, the 93 Eileen Hardy Shiraz. When it was released most of the pundits predicted it would have a long life and Oliver said drink from 2005 onwards. Halliday bucked the trend and predicted it would peak between 1997 and 2003. He was just about the only one who got it right, by Hardys own admission the wine failed to develop as expected. People who have cellared the wine and wait till 2005 to try their first bottle will be very disappointed.

I could site case after case where the experts disagree, but that’s not the point. What is important is how it affects you and the contents of your cellar, no mater if you have a few bottles tucked under the bed in a box or a few thousand bottles. The golden rule is that it’s better to catch a rising star than drink wine that’s over the hill and past its prime.

If you purchase a six-pack of say “1998 Chateau Cunning Clare” which is released in 2001 and all the experts say best drinking from 2006-2010, try the first bottle 2004. Will you “waste” a bottle? No way; if its still a fair way from its peak you can see how the wine is progressing and then compare it to the next bottle you open in another few years time. However if it has developed faster then expected, you have the opportunity of enjoying all six bottles before they go over the hill.

Happy drinking – cheers

Ric