Any wine conisseurs out there

[scorer]

Basically, does wine have a best before date?

As you can buy vintage wine, does that mean stuff we buy off the supermarkest shelf also has a big longevity?

We have just been sorting a cupboard and have stuff going back to 1998.... alongside some vintage Champagne we purposely brought from the years of 1990 and 1993 (the birth years of our daughters).

Anyone have any advice?

 

[tueartsboots]

Probably the best site to use <a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbr.com/vintage-chart" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bbr.com/vintage-chart</a>

 

[squirtyflower]

Not a best before date as such, but there is a time limit on 'good' wines that can be quite a long time
Different years and grapes will have different lengths they can be laid down for
And that's another issue, how are they laid down, is it cool and dark?

Supermarket plonk, especially new world wines are meant to be drunk fairly quickly without the need to lay them down

An expert will come on later and give you more info

 

[scorer]

Not a best before date as such, but there is a time limit on 'good' wines that can be quite a long time
Different years and grapes will have different lengths they can be laid down for
And that's another issue, how are they laid down, is it cool and dark?

Supermarket plonk, especially new world wines are meant to be drunk fairly quickly without the need to lay them down

An expert will come on later and give you more info

Cheers squirty and Tueartsboots.....

I'm afraid this is just supermarket stuff (in the main), certainly dont lay it down.... guess we will just have to open it and see what happens...

 

[marco]

a lot of wines dont keep 'mature' esp the cheaper shelf stuff, moet & chandon champagne i would imagine just gets better and better over a 20 year period, get them open if its corked or off nothing lost

 

[laserblue]

all wines will peak & then decline but the timescale is very much shorter for most supermarket wines than it is for a good vintage. the wines with the shortest life include beaujolais nouveau & the 'green' wines (new whites) from austria, etc which are meant to be drunk soon after bottling & don't keep.

the thing about wine vintages is that there are good vintages & bad vintages & older is not necessarily better. a classic example is the bordeaux reds (clarets) of 1982 which was one of the best vintages ever. the 1980 vintage, on the other hand, was one of the poorest.

 

[Mugatu]

If they are supermarket wines, crack them open and see what's going on inside, because you'll never know otherwise. Most will be perfectly drinkable still, one or two may have gone off depending on what it is.

As said by Squirty, modern volume wines were not really intended to lay down. Wines that were laid down in vintage years were stored specifically at the right angle in dark, cool cellars, not bright warm shop shelves. Give the cork a pop and see what happens, might be a few nice ones in there.

 

[Thaksinssoldier]

The easiest rules of thumb for wine;

Drink white as quick as you can to the time of bottling and leave reds as long as possible.

Decant anything you've let sit a while.

Pick one region for reds and google the weather the summer of the vintage.2003 is money for all European wine.