Singing the praises of cellaring

Ageing gracefully. No, I haven’t suddenly become an influencer spruiking a brand of skin cream, nor am I recommending a regimen of calisthenics for your facial muscles, but I do want to talk about the rewards of cellaring wine.

Famous Australian wine company Penfolds takes the concept of cellaring seriously, and every few years arranges a tasting of deep verticals of all their wines, with both local and international experts reviewing their progress. Their tasting notes are summarised and compiled by Andrew Callaird MW into the Rewards of Patience book, which is an invaluable tool for collectors to monitor their own cellars. The current (2021) edition is the eighth in the series. Penfolds also host re-corking clinics internationally where collectors are invited to bring in their (generally) top wines for assessment and possible re-corking. Young wines with perfect fills are normally not opened. Older bottles, and those showing a bit of ullage, are opened and checked. Bottles that are out of condition are returned with the advice to drink them shortly, bottles in good shape are topped up with the current vintage of the same wine, re-corked and capsuled, with a certificate from the re-corking clinic. Bottles with this sort of provenance can be highly prized at auction.

Sometimes it can seem like the concept of cellaring wine has become old hat, and statistics do suggest that the majority of wine is consumed fairly shortly after being purchased; however, there are still enough zealots out there that love to experience the magical alchemy that time in the bottle can bring. I’m fortunate to have several friends who share a similar passion and get-togethers invariably see interesting bottles out of our respective cellars.

To be fair, the vast majority of wine is meant to be enjoyed relatively youthfully, with the sub $20 category in the super or bottle shops mostly falling into that realm (that $7.99 ugly duckling bottle in the super is not going to become a graceful swan with ten years of cellaring). There can be surprising exceptions of course, but this can often relate to particular vintages. Nor does wine have to cost hundreds of dollars (Penfolds Grange is now about $1000 a bottle!) to be cellar-worthy, with so many great wines in the $30, $40 to $50 range.

Here are three older wines that were a treat to try. In the case of Pegasus Bay they have done the cellaring for you, and these wines are available in the marketplace now. The Maude was from their own library stock and kindly shared as part of their 30th celebrations.