Unusual Old Wines that Beg to be Opened

March 2017

 Although my wife Alice loves to buy and cellar wines, she is my biggest critic when collecting starts to cross over to hoarding.   Ever wonder why the occasion never seems to measure up to opening certain prized bottles?  When do you open your last (only) bottle of Grange?   When do you open the wonderful Norton you purchased and had signed by the winemaker at Augusta Winery ten years ago?  Time has a way of slipping by until one day, you are horrified that maybe that special bottle may well be past it’s prime.

We just got back from Arizona and had intended on doing an in depth tasting of the best wines of the desert but logistics have gotten in the way, so, we’ll do that in a few months.  Meanwhile, as I have started in earnest to rearrange our wine cellar to make room for all of the wine we bought before I retired from Great Lakes Wine and Spirits and all of the incoming 2015 Bordeaux futures, I’m finding all sorts of treasures that have been ignored for a decade or more.   Why in the world was I saving them?

For starters, I noticed that I still had a couple of bottles of Sula 2005 Shiraz and a bottle of Sula 2005 Dindori Reserve from western India.  We had planned to serve them at a local Indian restaurant with some Indian friends, but, the restaurant went out of business and the new one doesn’t allow BYOB.  The last time we tasted either has been at least 7 years ago, and they weren’t getting any younger.

2005 Sula Vineyards Shiraz, Estate Bottled Nashik(may have cost about $10 originally)
The initial smell right after opening and decanting was a rather weird combination of pool chemicals and spice, but, the label recommends to “open and allow the wine to breathe” so we did.
12 hours later a superb nose of black fruit, subtle green herbs with underlying nuances of earth, tobacco and fossil fuel gained strength.  The palate showed a very aggressive green twig, tree bark and dead leaf expression.   Having drunk a previous bottle 7 years ago when big chunky fruit filled the mouth and nasal cavities, I would say it was better then, but, more interesting now.   I’m glad we kept two bottles and we’ll taste the last one in a few more years just for laughs.

2005 Sula Vineyards Dindori Reserve Shiraz, Estate Bottled Nashik (still had the $15.99 price tag on it)  Like the regular 2005, this reserve was not good when we first opened and decanted it having a bizarre blend of pungent spices and chemicals.   Yet, after 12 hours, superb red candied fruit with Maduro cigar wrapper, pencil shavings and green herbs dominated the nose.  The palate was silky soft with long velvety tannin, compost, and charred mesquite.   Based on my memory of this wine, I’d say it was also better previously although the muscular fruit it had in the past has been replaced by fruit with the strength of a million butterflies.
After 36 hours, the fruit on both wines was so frail that the unpleasant off-smells again dominated.

Another wine we were saving for an ethnic dinner which we never got around to hales from Lebanon.  Lebanese wines tend toward a mature almost slightly oxidized character when young suggesting a short life ahead.  NOT SO!

2007 Clos St. Thomas Les Emirs, Estate Bottled Bekaa Valley (certainly under $15 originally)
Freshly opened and decanted, it shows a beautiful deep red robe with a slightly tawny meniscus and an aroma of strawberry preserves.  The palate reinforces that fruit with slightly bitter plum liquor-like taste in the mid palate and a finish that melts away to nothing.   Frankly, it tastes identical to the way I remember it tasting 5 years ago.  12 hours later, the wine toughened up.  The beefed up tannins drowned out a lot of the fruit.  Though richer, it is not necessarily better after extended airing.  I have one more bottle to try again in 5 years.

We had just enjoyed a very nice bottle of 2000 McNab Ridge Petite Sirah about a month ago so we were thoroughly delighted to find two bottls of the Cab tucked way down in the corner of our cellar.

2000 McNab Ridge Mendocino Cabernet Sauvignon (probably in the $20 range originally)
This wine has started to brown out both in the color and smell.   Right after decanting, it smells oxidized and a bit dirty.  I recall this being a pretty fine wine 12 years ago.   Though hardly dead, cedar, earth and tobacco dominate both the bouquet and taste.   The silky mouth feel is its only asset.  Not much changed after several hours of aeration.   Too bad it looks like we missed this one’s best days.

The next wine was purchased at least 25 years ago from the Chicago Wine Company at auction.   Knowing what I could afford back then, I doubt if I paid more than $15 per bottle.  About 15 years ago, I opened the second to last bottle which was still reasonably fresh though I recall thinking that there was not much class or pedigree and it gave me the impression that perhaps Castilla y Leon was probably not capable of making wines that could rival the best wines of Rioja, Spain.

1964 Senorio de Arganza, Castilla y Leon, Villafranca del Bierzo (probably $10-$15 originally)
Being the last bottle, it was hard to bring myself to open it.  But, open it we did!  With an AH-SO cork puller, the cork slid out nicely in one piece.   As soon as the moist part of the cork hit the air, rich, vinous, mature red wine aromas wafted up.  The color still had a surprising amount of red in the bricky hue for a 53 year old wine.  Decanting was only necessary for aeration because this wine had spent a long time in barrel and had only a small wisp of sediment.  The aroma of the wine had strawberry-like notes with clean root vegetable and marmalade filled dark chocolate.   The palate evolved as it aired.  Initially, rather simple straight forward spicy bright fruit carried throughout.  As it aired, pure, transparent, sweet blackberry, hints of terra cotta, and subtle vanilla-like tung oil polished wood emerged.  It became much finer with Rioja-like elegance as it aired.   12 hours later, it was SUPERB!  This 53 year old Castilla y Leon tasted like a 20 year old Rioja Gran Reserva.  It is so elegant and pure yet, the muscles have bounced back.  Even the color seems to have darkened as it aired.   This wine was definitely worth cellaring the extra decades.  It appears that there are still many bottles out there for sale on-line if anyone is curious.

Another tasting that I discovered while digging through the cellar that we’ll visit in future blogs will be Federico Paternina Gran Reserva 1983, 1971 and 1964.

Enjoy in Good Health,
Brian Cain, the Michigan Vintner