Wines to Open Now:

Wines to Open Now:

Wine certainly seems to be a key player during this strange time of quarantine. Never have so many people been talking about and drinking wine; parents deserve it after a long day of simultaneous homeschooling and work, friends are drinking it throughout Zoom hangs, and it seems like we all are pouring ourselves a glass when the clock strikes 5PM and we close our computers for the day. While we work through bean recipes and sourdough starters, now is the perfect time to dive into the wine reserves. Here are a few vintage favorites for the days ahead.

Vintage Champagne

Vintage Champagne – All those years of holding onto that bottle “to open on a special occasion.” I think I can speak for everyone and say now more than ever do we need more Date. Nights. I know it can seem like a drag to change out of your sweats into something nice, but it’s amazing what a little change of pace and some candles can do. So put on a dress, or at least jeans, and pop that bottle. Champagne is also almost limitless with its pairing potential, from popcorn to seafood (scallops, clams), and even a grilled steak, it’s on the top of my list to drink with almost anything.  I always say, it’s not the occasion that makes the wine, but the wine that makes the occasion.

Vintage Rhone Wines

I find myself on these cool nights wanting to sit outside and get some fresh air with a bold glass of red wine. I’ve been digging into our basement stash for vintage Rhone wines. The concentration, fruit and alcohol are powerful and that is the mesmerizing combination that I prefer to focus on rather than the world outside right now. If you have any 2000 Southern Rhones, or 1999 Northern Rhones, those two vintages are beginning to hit their glorious stride, while the absolute legendary 1988, 1989 and 1990 are drinking beautifully and certainly will help anyone to forget the troubles of the day for a little while. Most of the 1990’s are in excellent drinking spots from 1994-1998 and the higher ABVs and robust nature is a welcome style to many these days. And with all of the stews being slowly cooked at home, I’m sure the bottle would segue perfectly from the porch to the dinner table.

Vintage Napa Cabernets

If you’ve lucked out on some vintage Napa Cabernets at auction recently now might be the perfect time to open one up. These elegant wines whisper to an era of excellently made Cabernets and, relative to other regions, vintage Napa wines are gentle on the wallet, making them an easy choice to open up.  If there’s some meat in the freezer that you’ve been looking to cook, lamb or slow roasted pork with a bottle of vintage Cabernet would certainly make a weeknight meal an absolutely memorable evening. Some recent favorites are Pahlmeyer Red Wine 1995, Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon 1990 and Cuvaison 1978.

Cuvaison 1978

And while many of us don’t have a reserve of vintage wines stored away, now more than ever is the time to support your local wine shops. We owe a big thank you to the wine and liquor store employees for staying open and making sure all our vinous needs are being met with curbside pick-ups, delivery and curated cases. At home, we have been drinking simple pleasures like current release white wines from the Duoro, Piedmont and Loire. Our retail partner, Lower Falls Wine Co., can put together a hand selected case of beautiful every-day drinking wines.

If you find to your surprise when diving into the basement reserves that you have more wine than imagined, make inventorying a weekend project and send us a list! We are here and happy to evaluate your collection for auction.

Cheers everyone, stay safe.

Consider Reading : A Wine Buying Guide

CONSIGN FINE WINE

One thought on “Wines to Open Now:

  1. Ah, this is so nice to read. I am a wine professional and it is rare to ever see articles about what to break open from your stash. We are frequently told that a certain new vintage has the potential or needs aging for such and such a time but that is still speculation within a range of years. Even for people like me who study wine everyday, there seems to be so much chance in deciding when to open or not. Maybe our associates in the auction segment of wine get to taste older wines more frequently then those of us buyers and sellers in hospitality, retail and winemaking. As pros we are tasting hundreds of wines a year but rarely anything aged. So please, share more of your experiences of these patterns of location and vintage that are needing to be opened now please. Last week, for my wedding day, I opened a magnum of ’97 Isoceles and it was champing at the bit to get out of that bottle so now I now that I must plan to open my last one very soon. But I really thought these was still more time left for that wine to cellar and would have waited too long, a sad thought indeed.

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