I buy wine for over 20 years and to lay down for future generations
I do not buy wine to lay down
0voters
Just cracked an '86 Clerc Milon I bought as futures. Pretty good, can’t remember what I paid, but I’m guessing single digits.
Do you buy wine to lay down?
“Everybody” says that winemakers are making wines to drink younger, that nothing made today will have the longevity of wines made by previous generations. I’m not sure that is correct.
Certainly Bordeaux, the Great Great Grandfather of wines made to age, is often drinkable at a younger age. I’m not sure it is no longer capable of aging for generations. The few 2000s I’ve cracked have mostly been young and sullen, I’m holding the rest.
Please give only one answer to the poll, that answer being the longest time frame for which you buy wine.
Sorry Dan but for me there’s is no one single answer. I buy for immediate consumption as well for up to 10 years plus. Depends on the varietal as well as the vintage
The question should be correctly phrased as what is the longest you buy wine to lay down for. As I confidently expect my daughter not to show any interest in boys until at least the age of 25 the wine I bought to serve at her wedding puts me firmly in the top category here…
I purchase wine for both personal consumption and cellaring. Some I pull in 1-5 years and others longer to 20+ years. When I first started purchasing wine seriously I quickly realized I wasn’t purchasing anything for immediate drinking. I fixed that quickly.
Read Dan’s post. He’s asking ‘the longest’ timeframe you buy wine for. The fact that you buy 20/20 to drink today isn’t material, unless that is always your longest timeframe.
For lack of patience and material proper storage space, I never buy young wines (except those that by nature are early drinkers like rosés, txakolin, my youngest’s birth year 1999, etc.). Reds, generally, I buy at 17-50+ years from vintage.
I keep wines over 20 years, and I started buying wines to keep long-term almost from the start. When I started buying wine in 1988 the 1986 Bordeaux were close to arriving. I think some of the first wines I bought in half case quantities were 86 Meyney and Gruaud Larose. I still have four bottles of GL from that half case and maybe a couple of Meyneys.
I am 45 years old. It’s perfectly reasonable to buy a few wines here and there to drink while I (theoretically) collect my social security checks. Most of my purchases, however, do not fall into this category. Nonetheless, my vote as per the OP is for the. 20+ range.
I reemember buying 1977 vintage port in 1987 or so, thinking ‘these wines need 20 years to mature’ and thinking that was forever. Still have most of them, at age 37!
I don’t buy it to lay down, but I buy with the understanding that sometimes it will improve immensely by keeping. That said, I’m not averse to opening something “too early”, as I don’t know how long I’ll be alive.
I probably have some wines that will outlive me by a long time. OTOH, I may not really care at that point.
I am still holding some port and Bdx from the 80’s, although it’s dwindling fast. I do cellar some wine with plans on 20 years or more but most are closer to 15 years.
Since only a single answer is allowed no vote is possible.
But sure I buy wines to lay down for 10, 15, 20+ years - as my Clerc-Milon 1986, bought on release in 1989 and drank yesterday (see review) shows …
Some wines are also meant to be drunk younger, e.g. Austrian whites (although I also let some age …) - or some Languedoc and Cotes-du-Rhone …
I try not to buy any wines that won’t come around, at least somewhat, in my useful drinking life, and still have a bunch of wine in storage so buy much less these days in any case.
As to whether wines these days are made for earlier drinking, almost all the recommended drinking windows I see posted by members here are getting further and further out, like twenty, thirty, forty years…
![[whistle.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/87d24eb81ec6dc01d84f3d6c19fa9a357e90218e.gif "whistle"){kind=small}