The economy has a lot to do with the prevalence of younger wines. Vintners can no longer afford to cellar wine until its peak release date. It’s two years in the barrel, then bottle, release and collect the $$$. Nor can most consumers afford to buy aged wine or store wine for 10, 20, 30 years. New and (arguably) better equipment has produced drinkable wine at release, cutting the expense of storage and increasing cash flow. I personally witnessed the difference a new destemmer/crusher made to a once complex and ageable Cabernet. It produced a softer, fruitier, more accessible wine upon release. Sales went up with the new, more affordable, drink-it-now wine, and everyone was happy. Except maybe the real aficionados.
I have enjoyed many properly aged wines and as a younger consumer, purchased wines with the intent to age them. As a senior consumer, I no longer plan aging wine for years, so a wines aging ability is much less important.
as an old wine guy (getting there?) I hear what you say and generally concur. But... I would argue the issue (age-worthiness of currently made CA red wines is more nuanced. Having bought and aged CA (and other countries' red wines) for our store and also, for example, judging decade old WA Bdx blends , I am to my own surprise, surprised how many 'modern' CA reds have aged well.
As much as I love older wines from the likes of our own mentor/winemakers (Tchelistcheff, Draper, etc) of old, let's face it, the reason so many of those wines needed to age was their lack of full maturity (tannins especially). But I do believe that many of the better modern wines, not necessarily the Screaming Eagles, BDX varieties, top Syrah (blends) and OR PN's will/can and do age well over a decade plus.
As with all wines, it depends who makes the wine, the techniques and the varieties involved. Of course, I would like to see most if not all wines at <14% abv where possible--just makes wines taste brighter and more reflective of their place and variety. But, that will take a lot more work by vignerons to figure out the best means of doing so as global warming wreaks more havoc on our notion of what fine wine means. As always, a thoughtful essay. Joel
The economy has a lot to do with the prevalence of younger wines. Vintners can no longer afford to cellar wine until its peak release date. It’s two years in the barrel, then bottle, release and collect the $$$. Nor can most consumers afford to buy aged wine or store wine for 10, 20, 30 years. New and (arguably) better equipment has produced drinkable wine at release, cutting the expense of storage and increasing cash flow. I personally witnessed the difference a new destemmer/crusher made to a once complex and ageable Cabernet. It produced a softer, fruitier, more accessible wine upon release. Sales went up with the new, more affordable, drink-it-now wine, and everyone was happy. Except maybe the real aficionados.
I have enjoyed many properly aged wines and as a younger consumer, purchased wines with the intent to age them. As a senior consumer, I no longer plan aging wine for years, so a wines aging ability is much less important.
Dan
as an old wine guy (getting there?) I hear what you say and generally concur. But... I would argue the issue (age-worthiness of currently made CA red wines is more nuanced. Having bought and aged CA (and other countries' red wines) for our store and also, for example, judging decade old WA Bdx blends , I am to my own surprise, surprised how many 'modern' CA reds have aged well.
As much as I love older wines from the likes of our own mentor/winemakers (Tchelistcheff, Draper, etc) of old, let's face it, the reason so many of those wines needed to age was their lack of full maturity (tannins especially). But I do believe that many of the better modern wines, not necessarily the Screaming Eagles, BDX varieties, top Syrah (blends) and OR PN's will/can and do age well over a decade plus.
As with all wines, it depends who makes the wine, the techniques and the varieties involved. Of course, I would like to see most if not all wines at <14% abv where possible--just makes wines taste brighter and more reflective of their place and variety. But, that will take a lot more work by vignerons to figure out the best means of doing so as global warming wreaks more havoc on our notion of what fine wine means. As always, a thoughtful essay. Joel