So, I got married this year and definitely want to lay down a few special cases to drink in future years. I know that we already had a thread asking about what regions produced good wine in 2013, and the answer was mostly ‘It’s wayyyy to early to tell’. So, my question is, when do you start asking this question for various regions of the world? I imagine that I would want to start buying California wines next year, but have some time to wait on things like Bordeaux or Barolo. It’d be great to have a list of regions, how long it takes until we get an idea of what the wines are like for a given year, and when the buying frenzy starts. Apologies if this already exists somewhere.
join the club, me too! Bordeaux Primeur: May this year (possibly good vintage in Sauternes), most of the other stuff is only in 2015 coming out I’m afraid. I think we will need big bottles to be able to hold for 25 or 50th anniversaries…
I’m interested in 2013 as a birthyear for my son. One thing to remember is that the great producers typically make excellent wine even in difficult vintages. The question for me will be whether I will have the money for said wines. Still, long lived gems can be found in most vintages if you aren’t too concerned with region. Piedmont, Cali, and probably select Bordeaux will be my focus (based on what I know now).
2013 as a vintage is going to be across the board crap. Doesn’t mean that individual producers didn’t make nice wine, but as a ‘vintage’, whether in Burg or Bordeaux or Piedmont, the weather sucked so the ‘expected’ is for diluted and crappy wines. Yeah, I know. Lots of people will weigh in and say “wait for the wines to be bottled”, but since this is an agricultural product and is significantly influenced by weather patterns and the weather for Bord + Burg + Pied really sucked (along with N Rhone and Champagne, etc, etc), gonna have to check out Calif or Oz or someplace else for great 2013s…
I thought it’s gonna be spectacular for California, Washington and Oregon…
i guess new world > old world for 2013?
Ah, bummer, I was a bit afraid of that. I kept telling the wife that we should push the wedding back to a better vintage, but she wasn’t hearing it…
Oh well, good thing for all of those California mailers.