Any wine collector's here?

Not so much a collector but have had privlige to drink a bunch of "Old wine" mostly Bordeaux and Burgandy... I have 25 laffite and some 78 Chambertin - 4-5 bottles left... had on other 26 Laffite and it was not bad, but after about 20 min it pretty much crashed... you have to drink fairly quick to enjoy any flavor once they warm up at all ... not great. the Burgandies I've had from back in the 50's have all been excellent...

 

nice collection Tom! for some reason i drink to fast to get up to a "collection"!

 

We're not aging the reds more than 20 years, typically. We've found that there are usually diminishing returns. Not to mention, older than that, and you're really starting to run into cork issues and may have to have them re-corked. The better Chateaus will re-cork and top-off for you (for a fee, of course), but, frankly, these bottles risk becoming collectors items as opposed to drinking wines then for us. We're largely drinking our 80's vintages at this point, but the cellar's fully of 90's just about there. Of the lot you mention, the '89 is probably optimal (IMO). The rest may be a bit over-aged. They won't be bad if stored correctly, but they may not be the WOW you expect.

We typically take a bottle down every few years to see how the wine is maturing, and we've found that they can indeed reach a point past which they don't improve. Obviously, I hope you're properly decanting, but, as mentioned, they won't last long once opened.

As far as we're concerned, wine is for drinking and not looking at.

Enjoy.

CW

 

+2012

20 years max.

Drink em.

 

I took some pictures .....
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Haven't had the 77 lafite nor the 74 latour (nor 72 Latour)...off vintages, likely not great. Rare to see bottles form those vintages. 89 Mouton is tight and, well, Mouton like. Have had 78 Petrus and I actually really like several wines from the vintage. Its a lighter Petrus (for me anyways) and quite tasty, but like most Petrus, not worth its sticker...

Drink the Petrus yesterday (or today).

The Mouton can wait another 10 years...

God I love bordeaux...I used to spend all my time on wine chat boards before this car thing replaced them...

 

My birthyear Richebourg...I have a dead solder mag around here somewhere of that wine...good juice...actually all of the DRC's from 66 are quite good...(big surprise). I've never had my birthyear Y'quem...(insert jealous smiley face here).

 

Lots to agree with here re wines being to drink and not to collect/look at. I sold much of my better stuff for stupid prices when I just didnt' get thousands of dollars of joy from drinking a few glasses of fermented grape juice.

But - for my palate - I like "good vintage" bordeaux (23, 45, 47, 49, 53, 59, 61, 82, 96 (left bank), 98 (right bank), 00, 03 (some wines) and 05) with decades of age on the finer examples. I won't touch my middle-of-the-road 00's before 2020 in most cases and same with 05. First growths and other stellar examples I'm really looking at drinking windows of 30-60 years. Actually, that is a large reason for why I sold a lot of my finer wines...I simply doubt that I'll be around to enjoy them or my palate will be shot by the time they are enjoyable to me...sadly I really love burgundy too and, again for my palate, I tend to enjoy the wines with 20-40+ years on them. Thank god for Bern's over the years to teach me what these wines could become when mature (even if "preserved" in their way cold cellar).

 

I love Berns in Tampa... I used to go there very week, when I was doing deals in Fla... I had my set menu :

ossetra caviar - usually champagne

Plancha foie gras - I would get a half btl burgandy... drc, clos de bez, la romanee

small fillet & bernaise

I miss those days....

 

Love Bern's! Last trip there I picked out a beautiful 1964 Gattinara from their list.

On a different visit, I enjoyed a Malmsy Madeira from 1830 and another from 1930 just to have something that was 100 years apart.

 

Have you guys ever been to the Grey Cliff in Nassau Bahamas? That place has an amazing collection of wines some going back to the 1700s. We went in February and there was a write up of it in a car mag shortly thereafter.