What wine to store for 20 years ?

[ashleyn]

My first grandchild will be born in 2015 so I was keen to buy a suitable 2015 vintage and lay it down until the 21st. Any suggestions ?

 

[leadman]

My suggestion is not to look a single or couple of bottles, but buy a dozen or two (or three) to start him/her on their merry way into building a cellar. Worse part is turning 21 to find you have a single bottle to enjoy. You can always go the stock-standard gift of Grange, but more daring would be to put down some SA Shiraz and Cab Sav. To the few dozen I would add a few Clare Riesling and Hunter Semillon so the reds don't feel lonely!

Then you can buy some great French Red. I bought my retirement wine a Chateau Latour 1982 20 years ago and im still kicking myself I did not buy a 1/2 dozen. Then hopefully he can build up the man-cave sorry cellar, to store the Latour!

 

[Sprucegoose]

My first grandchild will be born in 2015 so I was keen to buy a suitable 2015 vintage and lay it down until the 21st. Any suggestions ?

If you dont have an appropriate cellar, you can have it professionally stored. Where? I know not.

Nice gesture.

 

[Daver6]

Firstly, if you don't have proper cellaring conditions, no wine will keep 21 years. Don't waste your money. In 21 years time go find a 2015 wine and buy it.

Secondly, given we don't yet know what the 2015 vintage conditions will be like, it is impossible to give a meaningful recommendation.

Finally, a 2015 vintage wine you want won't actually be released in 2015 (well Riesling will be from the southern hemisphere), but something like Grange wont be for sale until 2019. Some prestive cuvee champagnes not until 2025+.

 

[leadman]

That is all the fun of building up a cellar! I gave up on following trends years ago, as some wines we are drinking/quaffing now 1996 - 2002 are superb. The high tannic shirazes "lightly" recommended seem to be travelling very, even the cheaper ones!

 

[juddles]

My suggestion is not to look a single or couple of bottle.....

My suggestion is to also throw in a decent bottle of Carribean rum, and a nice bottle of scotch, just in case he does not turn out to be a wine drinker!

 

[drron]

Of course a vintage port.I bought several from the year my son was born.He doesn't drink it but boy am I having fun drinking it.

 

[vetrade]

Firstly, if you don't have proper cellaring conditions, no wine will keep 21 years. Don't waste your money. In 21 years time go find a 2015 wine and buy it.

Secondly, given we don't yet know what the 2015 vintage conditions will be like, it is impossible to give a meaningful recommendation.

Finally, a 2015 vintage wine you want won't actually be released in 2015 (well Riesling will be from the southern hemisphere), but something like Grange wont be for sale until 2019. Some prestive cuvee champagnes not until 2025+.

Agree totally with all Daver6's comments. Tastes change............when I bought vintage port (with wax seals) to cellar for both my sons it was all the rage - everybody drank port with coffee after dinner etc but nowadays very few people seem to drink port much at all. My sons wouldn't ever drink it so after turning 21 both decided to just hang on to their bottle as a keepsake. There are very few reds I would trust to cellar satisfactorily for 20-odd years....and not a single white - it's a long time to keep something when there's a high probability it will be spoiled or just plain "over the hill" by the time your grandchild turns 21.

Might I suggest that while the gesture is very nice, it's a pretty old fashioned thing to do nowadays. Far easier to squirrel away a series of uncirculated coins & notes and maybe some stamps from the year of birth.

 

[ashleyn]

Agree totally with all Daver6's comments. Tastes change............when I bought vintage port (with wax seals) to cellar for both my sons it was all the rage - everybody drank port with coffee after dinner etc but nowadays very few people seem to drink port much at all. My sons wouldn't ever drink it so after turning 21 both decided to just hang on to their bottle as a keepsake. There are very few reds I would trust to cellar satisfactorily for 20-odd years....and not a single white - it's a long time to keep something when there's a high probability it will be spoiled or just plain "over the hill" by the time your grandchild turns 21.

Might I suggest that while the gesture is very nice, it's a pretty old fashioned thing to do nowadays. Far easier to squirrel away a series of uncirculated coins & notes and maybe some stamps from the year of birth.

Thanks all for the feedback, I like the coin idea.

 

[leadman]

I can just imaging a 21 year old peeling back the cover of a mint UNC set of coins showing their friends, wow look at this 20 center!; or maybe better still opening up a bottle or two of 21 yo scotch or a great shiraz.

Those of us who are a numismatist (which I am) will tell you that you can buy 15 - 20 yo proof coins cheaper than they were released. Not the same story for wine....

 

[UP4014]

Agree totally with all Daver6's comments. Tastes change............when I bought vintage port (with wax seals) to cellar for both my sons it was all the rage - everybody drank port with coffee after dinner etc but nowadays very few people seem to drink port much at all.

Hmm, you haven't been on an overnight trip on the BAM

Perhaps just buy a bottle of something every year for the next 21 years, covers all the bases.

Matt

 

[TheRealTMA]

Just make sure the wines ( half dozen at least) have screw caps and not corks. 389, st Henri etc with screw caps stored well would be fine I suspect.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Tastes change............when I bought vintage port (with wax seals) to cellar for both my sons it was all the rage - everybody drank port with coffee after dinner etc but nowadays very few people seem to drink port much at all.

OMG - how good were those days (nights)? How good are they still on those few occasions when the company, timing, mood, location and circumstances all align and you get to give that port a really good crack again?

 

[Daver6]

I don't see how anyone can be making specific wine suggestions when the grapes for the 2015 vintage are just past bud burst in Australia and for the northern hemisphere don't even exist yet.

 

[vetrade]

OMG - how good were those days (nights)? How good are they still on those few occasions when the company, timing, mood, location and circumstances all align and you get to give that port a really good crack again?

OT, but tonight I was home alone and your post seemed to make a lot of sense, Cruiser Elite. Since my own company was all I needed and the other "circumstances all seemed aligned", a glass or two of a nice port seemed appropriate. So I chose my last 1976 St Hallets Shiraz Vintage Port (one of a few I bought at the winery en route from Port Lincoln to Melbourne in 1979), having last sampled one before the turn of the last century. Now I'm wishing I was more like leadman and had bought 6!

 

[Dr Ralph]

Did you end up making a wine purchase ashleyn?