I’ve been thinking about building a case of birth wines for my oldest, who was born in 2019. Since we’re in California, we’ll get a couple/few bottles from the north coast and the central coast. However, I’d also like to get a sampling of wines across the world. I have 4 criteria: 1) the wine should express terroir, 2) the wine should survive at least 20 years, 3) the wine should be under $150, and 4) the wine should be reasonably accessible at a local wine store or the internet.
As part of this exercise, I’d actually appreciate recommendations for terroir driven wines from a poor 2019 vintage. I’d like to have my children to have a little taste of the world as it was when they were born.
So many choices! There is a long 2019 Bordeaux thread, read through that. Tons of wines under your price point. Same with 2019 red Burgundy, lots of decent choices still around.
Also copious amounts of great German riesling available, 2019 was a great vintage throughout all of Germany and most of the wines are well under that price range.
For sweet wines look at wines from JJ Prum, Willi Schaefer, Weiser-Kunstler, Fritz Haag to name a few. Dry look for Schafer-Frohlich, Emrich-Schonleber, Clemons Busch, Wittmann, Breuer. Plenty of other options and great discussions around the 2019 German rieslings all over the board
BDX:
Leoville Barton (IMO this is the slam dunk answer to this question)
Cos (try for wine.com promo code to hit price point maybe, or if you have a local shop that does 15-20% case discount, that could work)
Napa:
Di Costanzo
Togni
Corison
Cornell (Sonoma)
Rhône:
Vieux Telegraphe
Guigal Chateau d’Ampuis or Brune et Blonde
Chave St Joseph
I’m certain there ARE Burgundies under $150 worth putting away for 2 decades. I’m just not smart enough to know what they are…
As stated, the problem won’t be finding them, it will be limiting them to a case - everyone had a great vintage, it seems.
Not widely declared in Vintage Port, so maybe just good there, but it’s not a birth-year case without a bottle of VP - Noval declared and Dow/Fonseca/Graham/Taylor didn’t, so go with Noval. That leaves 11 bottles.
One each -
LB Bdx
RB Bdx
Burg (red)
Huet Demi-Sec
NR
SR
Brunello (when released)
Barolo (when released)
Rioja (when released)
MSR Riesling Spätlese
Napa or Sonoma or SCM Cab
You’re just looking at the wrong side of the world. There’s amazing wines from Burgundy, both red and white, from the '19 vintage and German Riesling is one of the best vintages in modern memory.
Bordeaux: Canon (will need 20+ years to be ready), Montrose (great wine in your price point), Leoville Barton (well below your price point)
Rhone: Jamet cote rotie (above your price point, but should do it!), Levet Chavaroche Cote Rotie (< $100)
Burgundy: Lignier MSD VV, Chevillon Cailles (blue chip producers within your price point with history of going 20+ years; Caille does well in warmer years)
Barolo: Cavallotto San Giuseppe (won’t even be ready for 20+ years)
Barbaresco: Olek Bondonio Roncagliette, Produttori Crus etc. (all below $100)
Brunello: Biondi Santi
California: Beta (below your price point), Dunn, William & Mary (below your price point)
It’s all heavily dependant on whether Danny wants to keep the average bottle price to $150 or have no bottle worth more than $150. If the former, there’s some stretching possible depending on the selection.
Saw Chevillon Cailles available for $169 at a major retailer. I see now Lignier MSD VV is a $225+ wine in US, damn.
To Rodrigos point, there are a few wines he could keep under $150 to make up for the Burgundy tax.
I’m slightly surprised that there is only one mention of Oregon. 2019 was an excellent vintage and Berserker Business participants such as @Marcus_Goodfellow and @Jim_Anderson (Patricia Green Cellars) both make wines that could go 20-30 years.
I like the earlier recommendation of the Mosel Spätlese, but I would almost say for 20 years of ageing that an Auslese like a Joh Jos Prüm or something of the sort would work really well. You could definitely get a goldkapsel that will take 20 years with ease and 2019 was a pretty darn good year.
I am liking the Chevillon Cailles suggestion, didn’t know you could still get it at that price. Another one like that is Jadot Clos St Jacques $199 at several places, it’s been priced like that for many years since it’s not sexy enough to get the big Burgundy price bump. But it’s good wine and may last a lot longer than 20 years.
There was a topic here a while back lamenting that the good $200 1er crus were no longer available at $200. Given the increases in the last year, it would be a good place to extend the budget.
