What's a premium wine?

[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).]