Hello,

I have recenly joined a wine club (sunday times), when i get a box of wine
most of the wine says drink in 2-3 years, does this mean it has allready
been kept for 2-3 years so its good to drink now, or does it mean i should
drink it in 2 to 3 years?

Also.... if its the later is true, how do wine tasters rate it if its going
to get better in x years?

Sorry if this is a silly Q, I am new to this.

Steve

In ,
Steve Drake > typed:

> I have recenly joined a wine club (sunday times), when i get a
> box of
> wine most of the wine says drink in 2-3 years, does this mean
> it has
> allready been kept for 2-3 years so its good to drink now, or
> does it
> mean i should drink it in 2 to 3 years?


It means you should wait 2 to 3 years before drinking it.


> Also.... if its the later is true, how do wine tasters rate it
> if its
> going to get better in x years?


Many people have lots of experience tasting young wines and then
tasting the same wines again x years later. With practice you
learn how the tastes you perceive now are likely to change as
time goes on. None of this is perfect, of course, but enough
practice can make you pretty good at predicting how wine will
change with time.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 15:13:37 +0100, "Steve Drake"
> wrote:

>I have recenly joined a wine club (sunday times), when i get a box of wine
>most of the wine says drink in 2-3 years, does this mean it has allready
>been kept for 2-3 years so its good to drink now, or does it mean i should
>drink it in 2 to 3 years?

You can work out for yourself how long it has been kept from the
vintage as your wine will almost certainly have the year of vintage on
the label.

I would guess that the wine club means don't keep for more than 3
years after delivery, but why not ask them directly? In my experience
various people make a lot of vague statements of this sort without
specifying time after vintage or after release from the producer.
Don't let them get away with it!

In practice, no one can predict for sure. Don't belive anyone who
claims to. It depends on the wine, how the wine is stored, and on
personal taste.

>Also.... if its the later is true, how do wine tasters rate it if its going
>to get better in x years?

From listening to the comments of others and personal experience.

Gaining the the personal experience is of course a process that takes
years. You could note your impressions of one of your wines now, and
again in 1, 2 3, 4 years time. You would then of course need to be
able to generalise that experience to similar wines.

You could try to shortcut the process by doing a "vertical" tasting -
a tasting of the same wine from different vintages. But when doing
this you must remember that all vintages are not the same.

Generally speaking, wines with good fruit, high acidity, and (for red
wines) high tannin will keep. Some will have so much tannin that you
will *need* to age the wine to make it pleasant to drink.

If you are lucky you might find that your opinions of when to drink a
wine may coincide with those of some expert or other. In which case
you could take advice from him/her.

All in all, it ain't easy.

>Sorry if this is a silly Q, I am new to this.

It's not at all silly.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher

"Ken Blake" > wrote in message
...
> In ,
> Steve Drake > typed:
>
>
> Many people have lots of experience tasting young wines and then tasting
> the same wines again x years later. With practice you learn how the tastes
> you perceive now are likely to change as time goes on. None of this is
> perfect, of course, but enough practice can make you pretty good at
> predicting how wine will change with time.
>
So, the operative word above is "practice." Practice a lot...

Tasting & retasting is a tough job but some one has to do it!!
"cutecat" > wrote in message
news
>
> "Ken Blake" > wrote in message
> ...
> > In ,
> > Steve Drake > typed:
> >
> >
> > Many people have lots of experience tasting young wines and then tasting
> > the same wines again x years later. With practice you learn how the
tastes
> > you perceive now are likely to change as time goes on. None of this is
> > perfect, of course, but enough practice can make you pretty good at
> > predicting how wine will change with time.
> >
> So, the operative word above is "practice." Practice a lot...
>
>