What's a premium wine?

[SatNiteFever]

Anyone care to share how do you define a bottle of premium wine?

I read somewhere before that 99% of the world's production of wine are not meant to be cellared for long. Only 1% of premium wines can be cellar for over 10 years or so...wondering if it's true?

[wineguruchgo]

Hello SatNiteFever,

Welcome to the wineboard!

Yes that is true. Most wines today are made to be consumed early. This is done because most people will buy a bottle of wine when they need it and consume it within days of purchase. Therefore, the winemakers make the wines for that purpose.

[SatNiteFever]

So practically speaking how would you define if its a premium quality wine? just really curious on that

[Innkeeper]

Some people would define premium wine by price point, e.g. wine costing more than $20. I disagree. Premium is what premium tastes.

[Thomas]

To add to IK's point, some people define premium as wine either with a cult following, a series of high scores from critics, a good marketing program, or some combination of the above.

There are, however, truly premium wines in the world, but since wine is subjective, you get right back to what IK said about taste.

[wondersofwine]

For advice about what wines to cellar, talk to a knowledgable wine shop owner or manager. Most California Cabernet Sauvignon and some Syrah is quite tannic when young and benefits from ten years of cellaring. If you buy something like an expensive C.S. Reserve you don't want to drink it too young and waste your money on a wine that's not ready for consumption. The same is true with most classified growth Bordeaux wines. Some with a lot of Merlot in the blend are approachable when released on the market but even those might improve with some time in the cellar (under careful storage conditions). The ones that are primarily Cabernet Sauvignon-based may take longer to mature than the Merlot-based Bordeaux. Recommendations are to age Italian Barolo for about fifteen years. These are all premium wines in the sense of expensive and with some reputation for improvement with age/maturity. German Rieslings at Auslese classification are often both attractive soon after release and capable of undergoing
further development and adding complexity with ten or twenty years of proper storage.
I have limited experience with Rhone wines but again, a knowledgeable wine retailer (or distributor or wine book) should be able to give some suggested guidelines about when to consume them. The window for drinking is a suggestion and varies some according to vintage, winemaking technique, etc. Vintage charts are available from several sources that generalize about whether wine is not ready to drink, ready to either drink or hold, or should be consumed soon. Most grocery store wines are ready for consumption except maybe the Cabernet Sauvignons.


[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 01-27-2005).]

[Faustus]

I've been seriously sampling, enjoying and even collecting wine for a few years now, and I've found that potential for aging is one of the things I can start to taste as I acquire some experience. The things that wow is talking about above, the tannins, etc. are things you can really pick out, and comparing a younger wine with a more mature wine is very instructive.

I've even found that beyond the tannins, you can really see aging potential in the fruit structure of a wine as well. I've really come to appreciate how a "simple" (but don't get me wrong, usually very enjoyable) wine gets to be "complex".

It's especially rewarding to find an inexpensive wine that will get more interesting with a little age. Just be careful with storage, keep the cork moist and don't let it get too hot or cold.

Enjoy!