In a slightly more serious vein and to a partial point, yes–for me. It is the one rule I live by and I tell others to live by on wine (and I’m not one for rules).
You always buy the wine you like.
That is qualified by me stating that you should always be ready to experiment and try all sorts of different things. But a few people on the forum know that I mostly hate Grenache. There is one bottle of CdP in my cellar. And that’s for when I’m invited to a 100 point dinner and need a wine to bring along.
Personally I thought a lot of the smaller wines should be drunk up. Still enjoyable, but were better some years ago. I’m still chewing through plenty too.
It depends on the wine, the terroir, the vintage, the blend and as others have pointed out, personal taste.
Storage conditions, cellar temps and the seal of the cork factor into a wines drinking window.
IMO, very few wines NEED 20 years of aging. But there are wines, usually from Pauillac and Saint Estephe in tannic vintages that are still youthful by the time they reach their 20th birthday. When in doubt, refer to the previous statement.
2014 Barde-Haut now, not even a decant, and it’s kicking butt and taking names. Absolutely drinkable now, although it will age well and gracefully. Underappreciated wine that’s still in its primary phase.
It’s true that there are plenty of Bordeaux that will drink well at less than 20 years. But I don’t think I’ve ever had a Bordeaux of any rank above the $10 supermarket mass-produced kind that was well stored and was actually over the hill at 20 years old.
I drank most of my Cru Bourgeois 1982s in the first ten years while waiting for other 1982s to mature. While it has been interesting to drink a few older Cru Bourgeois from 1982 (like a Meyney I had at 25 years old or so), I don’t regret drinking these wines on the younger side. They were delicious.
Not surprised. I went to a tasting of 2014 C.B. in 2016 or 2017 and they were very user friendly. I be a lot of them would be delicious right about now.
Contradicting my own comment upthread, I had a 2000 Potensac last night, at age 19, that was probably the best showing for this in my experience. This example had loosened up, and shed the leaner profile of its youth, and was sweet & harmonious. Currants, cedar, pencil. No decanting either, and poured a touch warmer – at 72F – than we normally drink these at. I’ve got a glass saved for tonight too
Jay, there is no doubt that many of the better cb’s can be drunk 20 or years past the vintage; provided that one enjoys older wines, which you do, and that the wine has been properly stored. You have a temperature controlled cellar and that’s critical to longevity. When one reads the CT reviews most of the time the writer fails to indicate how a wine was stored; Whether it was held in a true temperature controlled cellar or a passive cellar, or whether they picked it off of a retailers shelf in which the wine could be cooked. That’s my main gripe about CT reviews, is that people will opine about a wine that is not representative of a properly stored bottle of the same wine, and not include disclaimers to identify a wine that could have been storage compromised. Even so called expert wine writers opine about Bordeaux and certain wine’s age worthiness and will at times trash talk a particular vintage of a wine based on a single bottle that probably was not properly stored. Do a google of “2000 Chateau Haut Bages Liberal” and you will find that there is some “wine professional” who claims in a blog from 3 and a half years ago that the 2000 HBL was quite over the hill! Unbelievable! This so claimed Bordeaux expert could not be more wrong, as I still have some 2000 HBL left and it’s a remarkable wine, showing no tertiary characteristics, and can easily be drunk through 2024. This Bordeaux expert somehow didn’t know that he had a flawed bottle (and before he opines, he could have went and obtained a bottle from the chateau, as this writer is based in France), and yet based on this one unrepresentative bottle he trash talks HBL as a chateau as well as it’s 2000 vintage.
Back to Jay’s initial question about 2000 Cru Bourgeois. I have drunk many 2000 cb’s and the peak drinking window can certainly vary, with some drinking well at age 12, others around 15, so I don’'t think you need to wait 20 years for a cb unless it’s one of the top tier cb’s like Sociando Mallet. The 2000 Cambon la Pelouse and Lanessan have been drinking real well the past 5 years, and are showing great fruit and earth up to the present day, as I have had some of each within the past few months.
So Jay…I’m game for traveling north to White Plains to try some of your 2000’s and can bring some of mine along!
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Underappreciated wine that’s still in its primary phase.