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In Reply to: Aging Wine posted by JeffMO on March 2, 2004 at 07:54:03:
Unless you can find a review in WS or by RP or Tanzer, you'll have to open up a bottle and taste it for yourself. While it is true that most inexpensive wines are meant to be consumed immediately, that is not a hard and fast rule. Wines meant to be aged are concintrated in flavor and very tannic, too tannic to be enjoyed now. It is principly to wait for the fading of tannins to reveal other flavors that we age wine for. If the wine tastes good now and/or is not overly tannic, it is probably meant to be consumed immediately. If it is very good meaning intensely flavored, cellaring it for a year or two won't usually hurt and can help. If it is not capable of aging and you do cellar it, you run the risk of having it fade to the point where whatever enjoyment is in it will be diminished or gone. Most people faced with this dilemma prefer to err on the side of drinking it too early rather than risk waiting until it is too late. There are no hard and fast rules. When a wine is ready to drink is strictly a matter of personal preference. Me, I like my ageworthy wines well aged before I drink them.
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