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When to drink? How much longer should I cellar this wine? When will this wine be at its peak?
For wine by wine recommendations, please click this When to Drink link, or choose it from the sub-menu above.
The tables in the 'When to Drink' pages provide a guide only - cellaring recommendations for wine are never exact. Storage conditions vary enormously and have a marked effect on the life of wine, with certain varieties being more sensitive than others. Pinot noir is particularly vulnerable, and will not age well in warm conditions, with marked changes in temperature, or with dodgy corks - another reason to switch to screwcap for our ethereal style! If your cellar is not ideal, deduct some time from this guide. Personal preferences and acquired tastes come into play as well. Not everyone is as wild about the savoury, gamey, forest-floor aromas of gloriously developed Pinot noir as we are. If you prefer yours in the lovely ripe plums and cherries spectrum, drink a little earlier than in the 'window' given in the When to Drink tables.
Monitor your wines - if you have several bottles, drink them over a number of years, enjoying and learning about the different flavours of bottle development. Wines often 'tunnel' at around 2 years of age when they lose the fresh fruitiness of young wines, but have not yet developed the treasured, more savoury characters of bottle development.
We have noticed marked bottle variation between identically aged wines stored side by side in the cellar and opened for comparison. We put this down to cork variation (some porous ones allowing oxygen into the wine). Besides eliminating cork taint, screwcap closures will remove this bottle variation - another very good reason for the move to the new technology. Always store cork-closed bottles on their sides to keep corks moist and thus ensure a good seal (not necessary with the screw-cap closures introduced from 2003).
Use a cool dark place with minimum temperature fluctuations. A winter/summer variation of 12°C/15°C is ideal, but a range of 8 to 20°C is acceptable. Avoid a place where the temperature fluctuates on a daily basis.
Think about serving temperature. It's important, especially for Pinot Noir. "Room temperature for reds" is a dangerous generalisation. Rooms are often well over 20°C. Reds served too warm, as they often are in restaurants and in summer time generally, will seem alcoholic and hot, the palate hard and the fruit suppressed. Ideal serving temperatures for Pinot Noir are 16 - 17°C in summer and 17 to 19°C in winter. Ask your waiter (politely :) for an ice bucket if the wine does not arrive at your table close to cellar temperature...it's well worth it.
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