Zinfandel

[cheeps]

Thank you all for your helpful replies.

I'm in Boston so I'm lucky to have quite a selection to choose from. Except for smaller wineries that only sell their wines locally, I would think if I wanted to, I could get pretty much anything with all the wine shops there are around here to pick from.

So should I assume (altho I know it's not good to do that!) that the higher priced Zins are always more robust and can age where more inexpensive ones are lighter and more often are "ready to drink" when you buy them? I know that's greatly simplified, but in general?

I am still far, far from knowling all there is to know about wine, but I feel that I've now narrowed down what I like and don't like, altho there are always new things to discover. The one thing I'm still clueless about tho is the aging part - what can keep, what can't and how you tell the difference. For example I keep hearing and reading about how some wines that can age, can also be drunk young, but they just develop more depth and complexity as they age. But then if you drink some young and leave others to age, that during the aging process they go thru periods where they might not be all that great, then a year or so later, they're at their best again. Is is just a matter of taking the chance and opening a bottle to find out what stage a wine is at or is there some rule of thumb about wines in general, i.e., Cabs last x number of years, while Zins only last this many years? I know I'm asking for simple answers to complex questions, but I don't even know where to start on this one. I'm the only one in the house that drinks wine unless I have company, so I don't keep alot on hand - maybe 20-25 bottles and I don't plan on buying large quantities of wine and aging it. Not now anyway. But when I do come across a wine I really like, I would like to stock up on as many bottles as I can afford to, but I'm always nervous about all this aging stuff. I don't exactly have money to burn and I would hate to open a $25 bottle of wine and have it taste lousy just because I opened it at exactly the wrong time!

Then again, my palette isn't that sophisticated yet so would someone on my level even notice the difference?

Sorry to ramble on so! Thanks so much for helping me out. I really appreciate it and am constantly amazed at how much you all know about wine!

Lisa