I’m not a wine expert by any stretch of the imagination. I’m just planning on buying a bottle of wine that I will open in approximately 8.64 years.
I heard that unless it’s a special wine, it just gets worse with age or something. I dunno. I like syrah and I just want it to be OK when I open it and not be rancid or something.
Go to a wine tasting. Its mostly trial and error with wines.
CA Wineries have plenty of options.
I don’t think he is anywhere close to CA.
c_s: Not sure why the exact open date you want.
That is about the limit for nice Pinot Noir.
Syrah is a good choice. Can age ten or more years.
Depends A LOT on storage (imo). That is why we buy nearly all of our wine from wineries, and more explicitly, the vineyards where the grapes are grown. They know that one fuck up (a large bad batch, poor storage, etc.) and they are out of business. Meanwhile a store and a truck don’t take storage as seriously as they should.
Not a fan of wineries that get grapes from other vineyards, since it makes me question why that vineyard is giving up those grapes. So, at times I ask why, and one winery said that they take care of a certain patch of vines on that vineyard for their own eventual use. This one was a very small winery, and the grapes are from a vineyard we are members of.
I also don’t buy wines with limited information about the grapes’ origin. It implies (imo) that the wine is an amalgamation of grapes from several vineyards. They have little control over what it will taste like or how it will age.
All that said: find a Justin Isosceles. You’ll appreciate the geometric reference, and it is a blend of mainly Syrah. Should age well, if you keep it at 55F-60F and out of sunlight. Small wine refrigerator should do the trick, though once you buy that you’ll be tempted to make use of it by buying more.
Can buy straight from the winery, have it shipped, if your state allows it.
When you are at the website, check the prices of older Isosceles. That is the cost of the winery storing it.
You might also consider a magnum, if it is for more than, say, two people, as they tend to age longer in the bottle (air volume vs wine volume).
There is also a 5.4768% probability that I will get to open the bottle this year, so there’s a chance cheapo wine will do.
For aged wines, I tend to have more luck with wine that is unfiltered/unfined (which nowadays is harder to find). There’sa difference between wines that improve with age and wines that can last a few years (normally the filtered ones).
I use cellartracker to look at reviews of previous vintages to see how a particular wine ages. There is some vintage variation however and each vintage may follow a different trajectory.
As far as Syrah goes, best examples are in walla walla and Sonoma in the US, Rhone in France and various regions in Australia and New Zealand.
I thought isocèles was a Bordeaux blend (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet franc Merlot etc)? Agreed that it looks like it will age very well.
No Chateauneuf-Du-Pape?
I have been testing some Brazilian regional wines (not distributed anywhere else but a tiny local area in Minas Gerais) and I have been impressed by how much they have improved.
Smaller wineries are always the best. You also tend to get the best service there.
I loved the Apple TV show Drops of God, which heavily featured Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Evidently it ages very well. Examples that age well are expensive here though (around $70 for current release). Costco has an excellent CnP for $19 but it’s more drink now.
CnP does contain some Syrah but it’s principally Grenache (the G in GSM). Northern Rhone will be more Syrah-based.
Shoot, I’m thinking of another Justin Blend… Savant, maybe.
Justin Focus is a high-end Syrah, not all that available outside the winery.
If all you’ll be doing is drinking, then forget all my advice. Pick up whatever you want.