Subscribers to Vinoté Notes have read the Varietals notes prepared by Joelle Thomson, a well
respected wine writer. We present them here as a preliminary insight
into the grapes that make the wine you can cellar.
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
ATTRIBUTES :
the potential to last and improve
for a very long time. Just how long depends, like all cellaring
prospects,
on the quality
of the wine. Good cabernet sauvignon has enormously concentrated tannins,
pigments and flavour compounds that, according to Master of Wine Jancis
Robinson, allow it to out-live almost all other wines.
CELLAR FOR:
anything from two years to… the sky is the limit
really. If you want to drink soft, cheerful quaffers that don't break
the bank then choose your favourite cabernets and keep just a couple
of years. Serious hoarders should shop at fine wine stores for cabernet
sauvignon from Bordeaux in France, Coonawarra in Australia and the
Napa Valley in the United States. The best wines can last for decades.
New Zealand is another country that produces impressive cabernet sauvignons
but high quality cabernet-based reds from here are a recent occurrence,
mainly from Hawke's Bay and the jury is out on how long they can last
for as cellaring prospects.
REMEMBER:
to check out how good the vintage was; a mediocre wine is
not going to get any better no matter how long you keep it.
RIESLING
ATTRIBUTES:
the incredible ability to age for decades and still
look and taste as fresh as a daisy. This rule applies only to the
best German rieslings but Australia's dry rieslings also develop
beautifully for at least up to a decade. The riesling grape produces
the longest-lived white wine. It is a late ripener with a relatively
hard wooded vine, allowing it to thrive in cold conditions, even
where frost is a potential problem. Riesling grown in warm conditions
often lacks the freshness, delicacy
and floral/lime/lemon flavours that it gains from being grown in
coolish to cold places.
CELLAR FOR:
your lifetime, if you buy the best from Germany. Although
these wines can be austere when young they are still so delicious
that many riesling fanatics drink them young but age improves them
out of sight. Australian riesling is also relatively austere when
young, in an altogether more dry, steely style than its German
cousin, and should be kept for at least three years before approaching.
New Zealand riesling is still developing a national or even defined
regional styles, but you could confidently keep good riesling from
here for two to five years.
REMEMBER:
to ferret out a good German riesling so that you know
how amazing this wine can be. Go to a fine wine store and they
will point you in the right direction.
PINOT NOIR
ATTRIBUTES:
the ability to irritate wine makers because it is
particularly fussy about where it's grown, how it's trellised,
when it's harvested, how it's made and how long it will keep
for once bottled. These and other finicky qualities make pinot
noir one of the most difficult grapes to tame and produce good
wine from. The best come from the Burgundy region, just south
of Champagne in north-east France. The Californian regions of
Oregon and Carneros are, depending on your point of view and
any allegiances, probably second in line for quality. New Zealand
and, to a lesser extent, Australia also produce some outstanding
pinot noirs although most are made from exceptionally young grapevines
which need to age themselves before wine made from them can be
expected to keep for long periods of time.
CELLAR FOR:
just how long the best pinot noirs or red burgundies
will last is tricky to say but top-notch French versions have
been known to evolve beautifully over several decades. Generally,
however, expect to drink it under 10 years.
REMEMBER:
that most pinot noir is generally a drink-young wine
so unless you have some of the best burgundies on your hands,
do not expect the wines to improve past about five years.
CHARDONNAY
ATTRIBUTES:
the ability to produce the world's most outstanding
white wine or the misfortune of being the blandest, most ubiquitous,
boring white around. It rivals riesling for title of best white
wine in the world and, although it ages for a significantly shorter
period, great chardonnay outlasts most other white wines. Chardonnay
is so loved partly because it grows easily in a wide range of
climates and so is planted and produced practically everywhere
that wine is made. Good chardonnay is usually either fermented
and/or aged in oak and often treated to a portion of malolactic
fermentation (the conversion of hard malic acids to softer lactic
ones), so it is more than mere fruit that gives the wine flavour.
CELLAR FOR:
as long as the style of wine can take it, which depends
entirely on its country and region of origin and, as a general
rule of thumb, the price of the wine. Most medium priced chardonnays
will improve significantly over two to three years in a good wine
cellar. Lower priced wines should be consumed as soon as possible
or left on the shelf. Beyond that, style ranges from heavily oaked,
big creamy numbers, which usually drink well young, to austere,
clean and crisp chardonnay like the French styles of Corton-Charlemagne
(almondy) Mersault (butter), Puligny-Montrachet steely) and Chassagne-Montrachet
(nutty). Generally the more flavoursome the wine when young the
less time you should age it for.
REMEMBER:
to treat different styles of chardonnay as different
styles of wine, since their ageability varies enormously. Find
out more via the retailer you buy the wine from or the winery.
SAUVIGNON BLANC
ATTRIBUTES:
its intense aromas are likened to everything from
gooseberries, grass and kiwifruit to passionfruit, melon and
even – not always flatteringly – cat’s pee.
Sauvignon blanc is usually easy to recognise by the smell even
before you have taken a sip of the wine. It has relatively high
acids but does not usually age well for much longer than two
to five years, although the very best wines debunk this theory
too. Its spiritual home is in the Loire Valley, France, whose
Sancerres and Pouilly-fumes were the inspiration for New Zealand,
Australian, Californian and now Chilean sauvignon blanc styles.
Unlike most serious aging styles of wine, sauvignon blanc is
a drink-me-now wine.
CELLAR FOR:
not very long, usually. The best are a different
story, with top wines (often oak aged versions) being able to
go for up to 15 years, according to Jancis Robinson’s
Guide to Wine Grapes.
REMEMBER:
sauvignon blanc is made to drink
rather than keep and most only last for about five years before
embarking on a downhill slide towards old age. If you think
the wine is an exception to this rule check out its origin,
vintage and history of keeping qualities.
PINOT GRIS
ATTRIBUTES:
how pinot gris tastes depends on where it is made.
Its spiritual home of Alsace, France, is where the best pinot
gris come from and they range from light whites which can be
perfect to drink with a wide range of food to full-bodied dessert
wine styles. It is the relatively neutral, grapey flavour of
pinot gris that makes the best ones so food-friendly. Flavours
span light fresh pears through to ripe, sweet, unctuous apricots
and peaches.
CELLAR FOR:
not very long, usually. Most pinot gris are like
most wine; made to drink soon after purchase. The pinot gris
grape does not appear, to date, to be one that has the potential
for a particularly long life but exceptions include the best
Alsatian pinot gris dessert wines. For everyday drinking styles
of pinot gris, dry or medium, you could watch them develop in
flavour for a year or two but then consume.
REMEMBER:
that pinot gris is made to drink so if you buy it by
the case or half case then put it somewhere you will remember
to tuck in rather than forget about it.
MERLOT ATTRIBUTES:
merlot is now one of the most popular red wines
in the world but it is definitely a case of getting what you
pay for. The popular perception that merlot is soft, fruity
and simple is true if the wine in question is made in that style.
But merlot is one of the noblest grapes in the vitis vinifera
family of wine grapes and it has the ability to be every bit
as big, powerful and robust as the staunchest cabernet sauvignons,
albeit in a more velvety style.
CELLAR FOR:
no time at all if the wine is low cost because,
generally speaking, these styles of wine are soft and relatively
simple. On the other hand, if you have a merlot with some oomph
and body, find out about the vintage and base your cellaring
intentions on that. Great vintages can last anything from five
to 25 years or more, depending on your cellaring conditions.
REMEMBER:
to find out everything you can about the wine if you
intend to keep it for any length of time. Check the quality
of the vintage and age of vines the wine is made from. The latter
information is most pertinent for New World wines rather than
those with a good pedigree of aging from Bordeaux.
Other sources of information on Grape Varieties.
There are many web sites where extensive information on Grape Varieties
is available. Listed below are some sites which you may wish
to visit.
www.wineloverspage.com
www.cellarnotes.net
www.winepros.org
If you know of a site which should be listed here, please contact info@vinote.com so we can add it to the list.
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