Typically I don’t write about
wines that aren’t available – that doesn’t make sense. But in looking through
my wines recently I found a 2010 Pinot that had slipped through the cracks, the
2010 Robert Mondavi Reserve Pinot Noir.
We here in America are routinely fixated on new wines, wines that have just
been released and that don’t have older vintage dates. Something from 2010?
Really, that was soooo long ago. But
here’s the point: a 2010 Pinot tasted here in 2015 should easily hold up, true?
The answer on this baby is yes. Winemaker
Genevieve Janssens is a very talented lady and this “older” Pinot might
still be on a few shelves somewhere and if you find one the time is now to
secure a bottle. This wine possesses a beautiful mélange of raspberry, cherry,
cola, cedar and earth, a fine example
of what Pinot is supposed to be. My biggest
gripe is that wines tend to be rushed to market and not aged properly before
being released so that they have time to mature. Of course, wine is one of
those few things where in some cases, more time is better (you wouldn’t say
that about four year-old beef for example). But some wines shine as they age
and this lovely Pinot Noir demonstrates that even five years does not diminish
what can be a wonderful, tactile drinking experience. So don’t be afraid of
older wines (but do ask someone who knows about wine before plunking down a wad
of cash).
 |
| Really old bottles |
In 2008 I was in Germany
visiting, Dr. Fritz Werner Michel of DomdechantWerner. He opened up his current wines, the 2007s and I recall him being
hesitant about these wines. Not that they were inferior, but they were young.
At the time I wrote this for IntoWine.com: “Everything today is about the newest
and freshest and youngest. This is a loss of culture,” Michel tells me. As
proof of this, after we taste the 2007s, he opens a 2005 Riesling Spatlese,
then a 2003 Auslese. But it was the 1998 Auslese that showed beautifully. A
full ten years have passed and the wines dance across the palette like an aged
ballet dancer, hitting all the correct spots, graceful and sublime.” (See the full text HERE).
So the point is to drink
young wines when appropriate, and drink older wines when appropriate - and
let’s be honest 5 years is really not that big of a deal – but as a wine
professional I talk with people all the time who have irrationally glommed onto
a bit of information they “read somewhere,” yet said info is wrong. Don’t be
wrong. Be right. Seek, and you shall drink. Seek wisely and you shall drink
well.
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