Wine Review: Aged Wines for Wine Geeks

Although it’s becoming less trendy in this immediate pleasure driven world, I like aging my wines. However, if you do your research, you can find quality and interesting already aged wines for reasonable prices especially if you look at less famous vintages, producers, appellations/regions and varietals. 

In addition, online auctions are sometimes a good way to find aged wines, because there’s often a bit of collusion among bidders to keep prices low until bidders start getting serious in the last 3 minutes and some bidders forget to rejoin the auction when it closes. Just be aware that a commission is charged by the website which is added to the price along with taxes. Also pay attention to the condition of the bottle, which may explain why it’s cheaper.

Another thing to consider is certain regions like Rioja, Brunello, and Barolo release their wines at 5-10 years of age, so you already have a head start in aging the wine. Sweet wines like vintage Port, Pedro Ximenez, Madeira and Sauternes are also relative bargains for really old wines.

I found a few fun Cabernet based wines that are prime examples of how good wines can be with age. A couple are also cool wines for wine geeks too although all old wines are fun for me–you never know what you’re going to get. All were relative bargains for wines at 20+ years of age, and I’ll explain how I found them.

Background & Tasting Notes

1996 Chateau Peyrabon Haut-Medoc

I found this 25-year-old wine for less than $25 at K&L. Why is it so cheap? K&L are direct importers, and this is not a well-known producer. Some producers keep library wines and sell them whenever they need to make up for current losses or need extra cash. Bottom line, even some $15 Bordeaux can age well and even if the price goes up 70%, it’s still affordable. There’s some hidden pedigree too if you do some research. The owner of this chateau is actually from the family of the much more well-known Domaine de Chevalier. It’s also located close to the more prestigious appellation, Paulliac, and 1996 was considered a great vintage for Cabernet in Bordeaux. 

The vineyard is planted to about 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot and that’s more or less the blend in this one. Immediate tertiary notes. Earthy, mushroomy with a little spice and wood. Dried fruit on the nose and palate, but fresher on the palate than nose. Still some tannins left, but they’re soft and smooth now-not noticeable with food. Simpler on the palate than the others. 90

 

1976 Villa Mount Eden Napa Cabernet Sauvignon

This is a K&L auction wine that I bought for less than $70 a bottle. It’s the first of two bottles. This is affordable because it’s not currently a well-known name in Napa and there are some signs of seepage and a lower fill on the bottle I opened, so there’s a greater risk the wine has gone bad or is way past its peak. 

I initially looked at this wine because it’s the birth year vintage for someone in my family (I won’t admit who, but it’s someone close and personal), but when I read more about the history of the winery, I felt that the history alone was enough to buy this wine. Put simply, if I were to make a Napa wine museum, I would include this bottle on display.

First of all, 1976 was the year California wines beat out the top French wines at the Judgement of Paris, which launched California’s current success and prestige in the wine industry. Secondly, it’s one of the oldest wineries in Napa dating back to 1881 although the winery no longer makes wine from the original site in Napa because the vineyard is currently owned by Plumpjack. Plumpjack, by the way, used to be owned by current California governor Gavin Newsome. Plus, one of the owners of Villa Mount Eden in 1976 was the granddaughter of the founder of Bank of America. However, Villa Mount Eden is now part of Conn Creek Winery and sources grapes from outside of Napa. It’s owned by St. Michelle Wine Estates from Washington State.

Another cool fact about this forgotten winery is that legendary winemaker Nils Venge had his first head winemaking job here starting in 1974 and thus he was the winemaker for this 1976 vintage. He went on to work for neighboring Groth and earned Robert Parker’s first 100-point Californian wine in 1985. That’s why Venge was called the “King of Cab.” All in all, this wine represents modern Napa in its nascent stages. 

Still shiny color showing life despite the brownish hue showing its age. Full-on tertiary notes on the nose. All about mushroom and earthy notes. Cedar. But the palate still has relatively fresh, ripe cherry fruit, verging on dried fruit with a little spice and the same earthiness. Super silky and round but not devoid of tannin even at 45 years of age. Great combo of primary, secondary and tertiary notes at the same time. Given it was 45+ years old, and the bottle was low shoulder and showing signs of seepage, I was pleasantly surprised how good this was for less than $70. 93

 

2001 Tenuta San Leonardo Vigneti Delle Dolomiti Trentino

This is probably the most well-known of the wines, but when you think of Bordeaux/French varietal blends in Italy, you normally go to Tuscany while Trentino is not known for Bordeaux blends. The owner earned his chops working at Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia) before it became world famous and brought his experience and some of the staff from Tuscany to create a Trentino version of a Super Tuscan. In fact, one of his early consultants was Giacomo Tachis, who also helped to create the Super Tuscan wines Sassicaia, Solaia and Tignanello. If San Leonardo were as well-known as those wines, I wouldn’t have been able to find this 20-year-old wine for $70. 

Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Cabernet Franc 15%, Carmenère 15% and Merlot 10%. However, at this time and up until 2008, they labeled their Carmenere Cabernet Franc because similar to Chile’s story, they didn’t know it was Carmenere until the late 90’s and they had to keep it secretly labeled as Cabernet Franc for another 10 years to stay within the parameters of the regional rules. By the way, they do make a single varietal Carmenere-one of the few producers to do so outside of Chile-that I’ve been dying to try. 

Still pretty youthful with well-integrated primary and secondary notes. Cedar and spice. Sweet spices. Savoury herbs and spices. Mint. Cinnamon. Meaty flavors.  The most acidity and tannins between the 3 wines as the youngest. The most complexity. Just starting to get tertiary notes. Drinking well but could soften up and gain complexity with a little more time depending how you like your wines. Definitely more elegant in style compared to big name Super Tuscans like Solaia though. Around 90,000 bottles produced. 93+

Conclusion

It’s a big investment to age wines, but if you do your research, you can explore older wines without all the waiting or paying an arm and leg. Maybe you’ll discover it’s totally worth it to wait. Maybe you’ll discover you prefer younger wines. However, it’s hard to beat the history that accompanies older wines–at minimum the self-reflection of how your life has changed since the vintage year.