WHEN TO DRINK YOUR WINE?

Obviously a great deal of patience is needed when cellaring wine. However, leaving your wine undisturbed for too long can be extremely disappointing. In most instances, it is better to drink your wine earlier than later.

understanding your collection
While many wines will drink well over several years and improve over time, if left too long they can also go to waste. The real trick for most collectors is to catch their wine at its optimum or ‘best’ drinking. To help prevent wines from passing their best drinking, it is important to know and understand your wine collection.

managing your cellar
For larger collections, cellar management software is essential. Not only does it help keep track of the wines in your collection (ie. list your inventory) but it also serves to remind you when you should drink your wines. It can also provide quick summaries of your full cellar, or help you to search for a particular bottle.

regular tastings
Published expectations of a wine’s best drinking are often under and over estimated. Therefore, following just once source of information can be dangerous. In addition, the estimation of a wine’s cellaring potential is really only useful if the wine is stored in ideal conditions. This is because wine ages differently under different conditions.

One of the reasons most collectors buy several bottles of the same wine is to allow them to monitor the development of their collection. At regular intervals (say every 12 months or so) a bottle is sampled and the differences between the last tasting are noted. In many ways this is one of the most rewarding aspects of cellaring wine. Used in conjunction with cellar guides, it’s the most reliable way of enjoying your wine at its best.