Cabernet question.

[Innkeeper]

Hi Skinny, and welcome to the Wine Board. When you are paying up to $40 it is very important to know when you want to drink them. Quality California Cabernet and Bordeaux need up to 10 years to reach maturity. They are usually released two or three years after vintage. This means you need to need to have adequate facilities to store them for seven or eight years.

There are some Cabernets, usually lower priced ones, that are made to be consumable upon release. When you a shelling out thirty or forty dollars a pop for wines you need to know which category what you are buying falls into.