Spring Newsletter 2021
For most food products, when they are packaged and sold, they are as good as they will ever get. Most of them even have an expiration date, after which they decline rapidly. Most wines fit that paradigm pretty well – it has been estimated that about 95% of wines never get better after release. Our BAV wines are made to be part of that 5% wines that grow deeper, softer, more interesting, etc. with more time in the bottle. Yet no wines improve forever, so how do we know when to drink them?
The answer depends on the specific wine and your own palate. Some wines (like many of our whites and Passeggiata) will improve for 1-5 years, losing a little bit of fruitiness but gaining more palate weight and complexity. Some wines (like our reds) are made to drink very well when first released but steadily improve for 5-10 years, then last a decade or more before they begin to decline. They too will lose some fruitiness but will add weight and new aromas and flavors typical of older red wines. The best time to drink wines? Well, do you like fruitiness? Then younger wines will be more to your taste. Do you cherish smoothness beyond all other attributes? Then long aged wines will be worth the wait. Sarah and I tend to prefer wines younger than most, with more vibrancy (a stereotypical French attitude toward wine) but we have many friends who prefer to wait for that incredible smoothness on the palate and those old red aromas like tar, leather, and cigar box (has anybody actually smelled a cigar box? I haven’t). If you aren’t sure where you stand, try buying a few bottles of a favorite wine and drinking them over time – all in the name of science, of course.
We don’t put expiration dates on our wines, but we have come up with a vintage drinkability chart based on staff tasting and customer feedback. Please don’t take it as gospel since everyone’s palate is different, but it should give you a pretty good idea of how each of wines are aging. And if you do crack open one of our older vintages, we would love to hear what you think. Happy exploring!
Cheers,
Ed (and Sarah)