Mark, I truly hope you find a wealth of pleasure in these bottles. What I’m having trouble with is how to reconcile the tone of this thread with your “unprofessional wine retailer rant” piece. In that thread you were being accused of taking advantage of an unsuspecting retailer while here you are getting high fives for scoring these from a “naive” shop owner.
Just an observation. I have no problem with your acquisition. More jealous. (Insert cheers gif here. Can’t do it on my iPhone)
some dicks in one thread, other thread with more positive people. ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
I’ve been trying for years to get approval from my wife to go by “Dick” instead of “Rick.” 
I for one love the story. Who knows how the wines will show, but to the OP: please find some real storage for the wines. With that ages, even if they are good now, they will degrade quickly at room temp or cool room temp. Enjoy your journey!
Here’s an informative piece on how storage temperature effects wine chemistry: http://www.wineperspective.com/STORAGE%20TEMPERATURE%20&%20AGING.htm
I’ve never seen that article before, and I can’t refute it scientifically, but the conclusion seems outlandish based on my personal experiences. “Translated, this means if your cellar is at 73°F instead of 55°F, your wine ages 2.1 to 8.0 times faster than if it were at 55°F. Thus, 3 years at 73°F is equivalent to between 6.3 and 24 years of aging at 55°F.”
Who knows, but I’ve never observed anything close to that magnitude of difference.
I’m with you, Chris. His conclusions do not comport with experience.
That article gets brought up every so often, including here: Question about less than ideal storage conditions - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers You’re not the only one who doesn’t find it completely convincing.
Fantastic Mark. I am sure there will be some undrinkable wines and some magic moments in that stash. Have a blast with them
I agree that the magnitudes seem exaggerated, but I think there are some sound points to consider. In other words, don’t throw the proverbial baby out with the lees. The whole aging process is poorly understood, and because of the long periods involved, controlled scientific studies are impractical, so we are stuck with theory, conjecture and anecdote, albeit in the collective experience. Certainly, we observe that wines age differently at different temperatures and that heat is detrimental, as are temperature fluctuations.
It is established fact that chemical reactions occur more quickly as temperature increases, and the relationship is not linear. This applies to the reactions occurring in wine. Also, the spectrum of reactions occurring in wine are affected differently by changes in temperature, i.e., the rate of some reactions will increase more than others with increases in temperature. Thus, we cannot achieve a balanced accelerated aging of wine by simply aging it at say 70 deg F vs. 55 deg. At the lower temperature, the differential in rates of reactions is minimized, and the aging process produces a more desirable result.
I think these are the main takeaways from the article. Unfortunately, it is easy to focus on the multiples he posits and miss the main point that wines do not age as well at higher temperatures, and that experience has taught us they age best at somewhere around 55 deg F. I don’t think anyone well-acquainted with fine wines would propose storing them for prolonged periods at room temperature versus storing them in a controlled cellar at 55 degrees or so.
I recently opened a bottle of 1979 Freemark Abbey Cabernet that I bought from the winery a couple years ago. The library cellar was certainly chilly. The wine was outstanding and showed no signs of being over the hill. The fruit was still prominent, along with lovely flavors coming from age and refreshing acidity. I can assure you that wine would have been undrinkable had it been sitting in my 68 degree basement for those 35 years!
Mark what an exciting discovery! I wouldn’t expect much from the Casa Sonoma though; I read a decade or more ago that it was over the hill.
Thanks for sharing those pictures.
Share many.
Sell a few.
That will make everybody happy including the IRS.
If you search here there are detailed TNs from our Merced-based, great-friends-get-together, wine dinners that Greg Meyer founded. We had a few excellent examples of this wine from a very cold cellar that was in Marin.
None if these bottles were over the hill Leonard, just delicious stuff.
If I wasn’t stuck on my iPhone I’d find the link for you.
Please handle them well when opening. I recommend slow oxygenation instead of pop and decant. Check [urlhttp://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=99799]this thread[/url].
I hope I can be there when you open some!
Thanks, Glenn. I’ll do a search.