Why Some of the World’s Best Wineries Are Making You Wait Longer for Their Bottles
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For many of the age-worthy wines you buy, the onus is on you to cellar a bottle until the ideal drinking window arrives, temptation be damned. In certain regions of Europe, you get a little help. Strict rules in places like Spain’s Ribera del Duero or Italy’s Barolo dictate how long wineries must leave their wares in barrel and in bottle before they can be sold to the public. That gets you closer to the peak when you purchase. And there have always been wineries that hold back a premium vintage longer than usual before releasing, waiting until a wine nears its zenith to be offered. But we’ve been noticing more and more producers around the world—from Napa to Trentino to Sonoma to Rioja—maturing wines themselves to offer bottles that are ready for enjoyment once you buy them.
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One of the joys of our line of work is attending dinners and events at which current and back vintages of the same wine are tasted side-by-side, giving insight into how wine ages and what we can expect from it as it evolves. Balance is key, as there is a delicate dance between tannins and acidity that determines how a wine tastes now and how it may taste in the future. The process that goes into creating a wine that is built to last begins at the earliest stages of winemaking—in the vineyard.
At Garden Creek Ranch Vineyards Winery in Sonoma’s Alexander Valley, husband-and-wife team Justin and Karin Warnelius-Miller craft two pre-aged wines, Clonal Selection Estate Chardonnay and Tesserae Cabernet Sauvignon. The current vintage of their Chardonnay is 2020 and Tesserae’s is 2016. Winemaker Karin explains that she and her husband’s vineyard practices—including minimal water usage, planting cover crops, and utilizing compost—move them toward their goal of “creating dimensional acidity, tannin weight, and sophisticated varietal characteristics” in their wines. Once in the winery, the making of Garden Creek Ranch wines is a measured process from start to finish. The Chardonnay is vinified with slow-fermenting yeasts and is even matured in long-aged wood from older trees before resting in bottle for three years, while Tesserae spends 22 to 24 months in tight-grained French barrels (also from older trees) before being laid down for six years—which Karin points out “allows for the integration of a wine’s foundation to build aromatics, flavors, and mouthfeel,” creating “a seamless, harmonious effect that can only take place with aging.”
Cain Vineyard & Winery in Napa’s Spring Mountain AVA is known for cellaring wine for longer than the average amount of time; in addition to its current release vintage of flagship wine Cain Five, which is 2018, the winery has also made bottles of the 2009 available. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, the ’09 “has just begun to acquire that soft patina from bottle age,” winegrower Chris Howell says. Cain always holds back a quarter of its vintage each year to cellar and release later as a library wine, allowing consumers to taste the evolution of Cain’s bottlings. The winery sells as much or more library vintages than it does current vintages, and even at the 10-year mark, Cain doesn’t try to sell out its library wine, preferring to be able to offer it again at 20 years.
While some Italian DOCG appellations such as Brunello di Montalcino and Barolo have strict aging requirements, the IGT category (which was established for producers whose wine falls outside the local style), offers more flexibility for both varieties and aging. At San Leonardo in Trentino, owner and estate manager Marchese Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga ferments his San Leonardo Vigneti delle Dolomiti, a Bordeaux-style blend, in concrete before aging in barrel for two years and in bottle for an additional two years; the latest release is from 2019. “The two years of barrel aging play a crucial role in harmonizing the tannins, enhancing structure, and ensuring the wine’s longevity,” Guerrieri Gonzaga says. And the time in bottle allows it to “fully integrate and achieve a level of completeness that cannot be attained in any other vessel.”
Even in regions bound by tradition, some wineries choose to extend the aging process beyond what is required. Such is the case at both Tenuta di Capezzana in DOCG Carmignano in Tuscany and Bodegas Faustino in DOCa Rioja. Tenuta di Capezzana began a project called 10 anni (10 years) in 2006, in which 3,000 bottles are held back annually and released 10 years after the vintage, while at Faustino, the brand sent a special selection of 2004 Gran Faustino to market in 2024, 20 years after harvest and more than 10 years since Faustino 2004 Gran Reserva left the winery.
One of the reasons that Tenuta di Capezzana owner Beatrice Contini Bonacossi decided to retain bottles in her cellar for longer aging is that “it is more difficult now to find wine lovers and restaurants with big cellars.” Contini Bonacossi says the additional years of maturation bring “more elegance, aromatic complexity, balance, and velvet” to the wine, and that those who enjoy additional secondary and tertiary characteristics in their glass will be rewarded for waiting even longer. At Faustino, proprietors Lourdes and Carmen Martínez Zabala decided during the 2004 harvest to create the limited-edition Gran Faustino through meticulous selection of the finest grape clusters, which they tell usensured “a more sophisticated and enduring expression.” Still vibrant thanks to well-integrated acidity, the wine offers a refined tannic structure, silky texture, and elegant finish.
Pinot Noir is not the first grape that comes to mind for long aging due to its soft tannins, but when harvested at the right moment and vinified perfectly, its bold acidity helps to lengthen its lifespan. Although winemaker Erni Loosen is better known for his award-winning Riesling from Weingut Dr. Loosen in Germany’s Mosel Valley, he also makes highly acclaimed Pinot Noir in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where he recently released the 2013 bottling of Appassionata Fortissimo Pinot Noir and has still not released his very first vintage, 2005. A lover of mature wines, Loosen says his grandfather told him that you shouldn’t judge a vintage until it was at least 10 years old, because that’s when the true character of the wine begins to emerge. “When grown in a cool climate, like Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Pinot Noir retains a good portion of its natural fruit acidity as it ripens,” he says, thus giving it a firm acid backbone and finer tannins that allow it to mature slowly for many decades.
Making wines that will age well requires a lot of time and patience—and enjoying them does as well. Many of us drink our wines far too young, but thanks to committed vintners around the world who are doing the work of aging for us, we no longer have to live with the constant temptation of drinking our wine before its time.
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