Who Says Older Isn't Better? Let's Taste Some Library Wines!

Last week I covered the basics of aging wine and how wine changes as it ages. In this week’s blog, we’ll finally answer the question, “Is older wine better?” by tasting three of our best library wines that have been aging in bottle for over a decade. Let’s taste some wine!!!

Three of my aged library wines and my Coravin

As is always the case with wine, the only way to truly learn what you like and don’t like is to actually taste it. Most of the wine we all drink was made to be consumed soon after release, and that’s exactly what we do. But truly fine wines – made from the best grapes grown in the best wine-growing regions in the world and crafted by the most sought-after wine makers – are generally built to be tasted and enjoyed years, and most often decades after their release.

Accessing and then enjoying these wines at their prime requires you to either buy them young, and then wait 10 years, 20 years, or even longer to actually open the bottle and taste them or go on-line or participate in an auction to search them out and find the gems you are looking for. The latter method can be expensive since you are paying a premium for someone else to store them properly over decades, while the former requires you to exercise an unusual amount of patience not typical for your average American citizen!

My preference is to invest in a small number (i.e., a case or two) of bottles of fine wines built for aging and then lay them away in our wine refrigerator for the proper amount of time, replacing bottle-for-bottle after we decide to enjoy them once they are ready to drink. Wine refrigerators are designed to store wines in optimal conditions – they include temperature and humidity controls and come with special glass doors that block damaging sunlight as well. If you don’t have the interest or money to invest in such a refrigerator, then you can store your collection of “library wines” in a cool, dark space in your house (a closet in the basement is perfect for the job).

I also enjoy tasting how these bottles of wine are developing over time, so Laurie and I invested in a Coravin, which is a special wine pouring device that allows you to pour the amount of wine you desire from a bottle, and then save the remaining wine left in the bottle for weeks, months, or even years. The Coravin injects a needle into the cork which is used to extract the wine from the bottle. It then replaces the poured wine with pure Argon gas, ensuring oxygen never touches the remaining wine, keeping it as fresh as the day it was bottled. That means you can buy a nice bottle of wine meant for aging, taste it soon after you buy it, and then lay it away for another year or two and taste it again to see how it’s developed and changed over time, and then lay it away again for a few years until you are ready to enjoy the bottle for a special occasion.

Recently, I was looking through my small library wine collection and noticed that it was time to taste a few of these wines since they were approaching their optimal age according to the wine experts. I wanted to try them, but I didn’t want to open three bottles of wine at once (especially expensive wines like these!) just so I could taste them to see if they were ready to enjoy on their own. So, I decided to use my trusty Coravin to sample these wines. And since drinking alone is never fun and Laurie was out and about doing other things, I decided to invite one of my wine-loving friends from down the street to sample these wines with me. Gerard wasn’t hesitant to say “YES!” to my invite so the library wine tasting was officially on!

Over the course of a weekday afternoon (a unique benefit of being retired – drinking wine at 3:00 pm on a Wednesday afternoon!), we tasted our way through three aged library wines, comparing and contrasting them and assessing their quality and readiness to drink. It was great fun, and an awesome educational experience for both of us as we discussed what we were tasting, how the three wines were different from and similar to each other, and which ones we liked the best.

Library wine tasting with friend, neighbor, and wine lover Gerard

The three red wines we tasted were all from Napa Valley and included two red blends (one a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot; and the other a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc) and one that was 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The vintages of the wines were 2010, 2011, and 2013 respectively, so these wines had spent anywhere from 10-13 years in the bottle. We tasted each of them alone first, and then side-by-side so we could compare and contrast them.

My quick notes for each of these wines follow, but the bottom line is that all of the wines were absolutely superb! They were all extremely complex wines, with soft tannins, fresh fruit, but also earthy characteristics that included spice, leather, tobacco, and mushroom notes. All of them were ready to drink now but could also age for a few more years. We both settled and agreed on a favorite (the 2013 Gargiulo 575 OVX Cabernet Sauvignon), but we enjoyed them all. My plan is to open all three of them over the next year and share them at special dinners with family and friends during 2024!

And finally, to answer the question of the blog, “Is older wine better?” – I’d say it depends on your individual preferences, but generally speaking and after drinking my fair share of older, aged library wines, my conclusion is that older wines are somewhat more interesting and complex than their younger counterparts, but also an acquired taste as well. Accordingly, I’ll continue to age my higher quality library wines to ensure I drink them at their peak, the way the wine maker intended!

2011 Gemstone Estate Red Wine, Yountville, Napa Valley ($180) – This wine is a red blend consisting of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Franc. It’s deep, dark purple in color with scents of black pepper, leather, and soy. This definitely has the classic characteristics of a nicely aged wine, with the earthy characteristics taking over from the fruitier character of its youth. Full-bodied, I taste light blackberry fruit, followed by oak, tobacco, and mushroom along with peppery spice. The tannins are soft but still in play, and there is a slight earthy bitterness on the finish. I always prefer a slightly more fruit-forward wine, but this wine displays text-book characteristics of an aged Napa red. It needs a grilled steak to enjoy it properly.

2010 Rudd Oakville Estate Red Wine, Oakville, Napa Valley ($210) – This wine is a red blend consisting of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot, and 7% Malbec. Nice depth of color – purple with slightly brown edges in the glass, typical for a wine aged this long. The nose shows earthy characteristics – mushroom, pencil shavings, thyme, and leather. In the mouth, I taste black cherry, soy sauce, red licorice, and tobacco. It’s rich and complex, with earth tones dominating the palate and a smooth, long finish. Again, not my favorite style but still appreciate this aged wine for what it has become and will definitely enjoy the rest of this bottle with a rich Italian dish like spaghetti and meatballs or ricotta and sausage lasagna.

2013 Gargiulo 575 OVX Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Vineyard, Oakville, Napa Valley ($285) – This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. 10-years old, the wine is dark-red and purple in the glass with scents of cherry, rhubarb, blackberry, and licorice on the nose. Full-bodied, this wine is still fruit forward with lovely red and black fruit up front, followed by pepper spice and light leather and earth notes on the finish. The tannins are still tight but showing some softening. The finish is long with a nice dark cherry finish. Wow – this wine drinks like a 3-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon and is aging beautifully – it can definitely spend more time in the bottle, but this style of aged wine is my favorite and I plan to drink it soon, with a grilled porterhouse steak with cowboy sauce, a loaded bake potato, and grilled asparagus with grated parmesan and lemon!