Back in 2022, I pledged that I’d get better about drinking from our wine collection. You know it’s New Year’s Resolution time and I still need to get better. When you write about wine, you often fall into the habit of opening review wines instead of the wines you collect. When I looked at my CellarTracker status, I realized I had a high volume of wines that had reached the “Ready to Drink” stage. It was time to focus on Cellar Roulette.
Cellar Tracker was originally created in March 2003 by Eric Levine to keep track of his own cellar. CellarTracker is an excellent cellar management tool for collectors to keep track of their collections and pertinent details like drinkability. While I learned at TexSom you can age rosé and while some can flourish, you need to be a little more intentional about which wines you age.
Cellar Roulette Continues (here’s how it started)
Last year we became much more intentional about Cellar Roulette, a little game where we will review a shelf on one of the Eurocaves and see what looks interesting and what data shows we need to open. Because I’m the one who didn’t drink the wines when I should have, I’m not going to report on the wines that were past their prime.
Aging wines can result in profound change as many wines do develop. But this must be done with purpose – storing and aging wines at a certain temperature – usually 55 – 59 °F (12 – 15 °C) and 55 – 75% humidity. Ironically, we joined a wine club 55 Seventy and intentionally brought some of our cellar wines there to drink. That has helped with consumption.
In the beginning of my wine collecting (said sarcastically) days, I made the mistake of “collecting” Marilyn Merlot bottles before I got into wine. It shocks me so many years later, there are still a large community of people trying to sell their Marilyn Merlot collections.
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Today, in the spirit of Cellar Roulette, I’m going to post the next five wines that I plan to try. There’s no rhyme or reason on my selections, prices are all over the board, and I don’t know how some of the wines got to me.
- 2005 Damiano Zinfandel. Not sure they are still producing; multiple searches yielded no results.
- 2009 Château Mirefleurs Bordeaux Supérieur
- 2002 Parson’s Flat Shiraz – rebranded and repackaged, but I found some information on this year of wine.
- 2014 Masthead Sangiovese This was a wine that I made with four other bloggers (and a great winemaker) and it ended up with a 90+ score from the Wine Advocate. But is it still drinkable?
- 2016 Tercero Mouvedre Rosé (back in the day, I had the chance to taste with Winemaker Larry Schaffer from Tercero Wines, the king of authenticity. I’m rooting for this one, but it’s a hard ask for rosé.
In 2022, I vowed to drink more from our wine collection. With the New Year upon us, it’s time to step up and continue to follow through on that resolution.
