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Find a Reason to Try These NOW

Well you’re feeling pretty lucky when you get a chance to try some of California’s benchmark Cab and Cab blends from a vintage that stands out in its decade. 1997 was definitely one of the best vintages in California from the ‘90’s and wineries like Opus One, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Caymus Vineyards can find themselves in the mix when it comes to sifting through wineries, and coming up with some of the “Best of the Best” in Northern Cali.

But when you’re dropping some serious cake, like you will be, and purchasing some of these time proven winners, you have extremely high expectations. And a $175+ bottle can have a hard time living up to the hype. These are some bottles that can, and make you feel pretty good while doing it. This writing however, is less about the reviews and more about just drinking the wines.

This group of heavy-hitters will undoubtedly fall into the class of wines that can go right into the cellars of many collectors. But they also need to be drank up, or drunk up, whatever you want to call it. My reviews below show that trying these wines now is very much worth your while. Maybe 20 years in the cellar is not what all these wines need.

Of course hundreds and hundreds of cases of these wines are bought and clunked right down into the cellar. Big $ investments and age worthy collectables, right? Well of course, but I always say that these need to be drank, just like every other bottle, sooner or later. I prefer the sooner. Maybe not today, but maybe in the next few years, and probably in the next 8 to 12 years. These wines do not need to fall into the “age it till it’s dead” black hole. Do it sooner. Know what you have and drink it before it dies.

How many of these wines are going to be put in cellars, 12 at a time, and left to sit for years? Well, lots. Then the wine collector / business guy, is going to be crossing the street some morning and gets hit by a bus. His widow then sells the wine cellar contents to some Auction house. Said auction house, now sells to wine collector guy #2 and “plop”, it goes into another cellar.

The bottles still look pristine in unopened cases with perfect, untouched labels, but they sit again. They sit, mature and wait for many, many years for someone to drink them. Someone please drink them. Don’t let ‘em sit forever. The winemaker didn’t want you to let it age beyond recognition for 25 years.

A buddy of mine whom I ran into the other day let me know (again), that he had a precious case of 1990 Joseph Phelps “Insignia” in his cellar. So I asked him how it was drinking. His response, “I don’t know, I’m not drinking it.” Well, then what the hell did you buy it for. He is ageing it for another 5-6 years and then waiting for a really special occasion to open the first bottle.

At that rate he should be dead before he gets to the 7th bottle and the wine will be possibly declining also. I know it is fun to have a cellar full of good wine, but when it takes a good ass kicking to get you to actually break open a case and drink the first bottle, we have a problem. Some people just have a hard time having 11 bottles in their possession instead of 12. Well guess what folks, they make more every year.

So before you put all those age worthy bottles away for your kids wedding, your 50th Anniversary or for when the Red Sox win the World Series, think about them reaching their peak before you think they will. Just find a reason to taste them as they age. One bottle a year will give you the perfect sense of how they are progressing. Here are a few good reasons to drink a special bottle that you might have otherwise saved for another far off rainy day.

• You didn’t get arrested today.
• The new tattoo on your back turned out SWEET.
• You won the local pie-eating contest.
• Your plane landed.
• The babysitter ISN’T pregnant.

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Related posts:

1. McIlroy Cellars
2. It’s Mine, All Mine
3. 1997 wine special selection
4. Shiraz Wines
5. Collecting Wine: where do you begin?