A few things recently reminded me that wines’ best friend is often a little extra time.
It’s ok to leave the rest of the bottle for another evening. We opened a bottle of Fedellos’ Conasbrancas ‘22, a white wine from Ribeira Sacra, on Friday evening and it was lovely. We came back to it on Sunday, having kept it in the fridge with the cork popped back in, no fancy gizmo used or needed, and it was even lovelier.
At Christmas on an impulse I opened a bottle of 1994 Quinta do Noval port, one of the few bottles that I’ve managed to keep for a while and that’s followed me from house to house. It’s not been well stored, it was older than four of the six people drinking it, and I didn’t have high hopes but it was amazing. Still fresh, full of fruit, energy and well balanced.
I’ve been fortunate to visit a lot of cellars over the years. Some very functional. Some very atmospheric. Most of us don’t have suitable space to keep wines for long, never mind almost 30 years. But keeping just a few bottles resting is worth the effort, even if the conditions aren’t perfect.
At Iron & Rose we don’t have a lot of older wine to sell but we do have some wines that have had some time to mature in bottle, lots that would reward keeping, and we do hold a few wines back for a few months or more before putting them on sale.
If you’re not sure what to keep and what to drink, or want to build a little “cellar”, get in touch and we’ll help you out.
PS some say natural and organic wines don’t age. We beg to differ. Badly made ones don’t, sure. But then badly made conventional ones don’t either, even when they’ve been rammed full of nasties. And what would you rather drink?
