YOUR AD HERE »

Wine Ink column: Drink the old stuff first

Young grapes ready for harvest will eventually be made into wines that will age long into the future.
Special to the Daily | iStockphoto

FIVE CLASSICS LIKELY OLDER THAN YOU

• 1921 Chateau d’Yquem

• 1931 Quinta Do Noval Nacional Port

• 1945 Chateau Mouton Rothschild

• 1958 Alfredo Prunotto Barolo Riserva

• 1971 Domaine Romanee-Conti

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

J.L. Chave 2013 Cotes Du Rhone Mon Coeur — So we can’t all drink a 1990 Cuvee Cathelin. But you can drink affordable Chave. For less than $25, this blend of Syrah and Grenache will give you taste of the Rhone. Great for the grilling night, this young wine will pair well with both bold poultry and that flank steak.

Due to the great largess of friends and people in the wine business, I have been afforded the opportunity to taste some wines that have a little age on them. Not ancient wines, or even wines from, say, before I took my first steps, but rather some wines that had their genesis in the summers of my youth in the 1970s and 1980s.

First, let me say that when I can sniff, sip and contemplate a wine from a time gone by, I love to try to remember my personal state at that time. For example, while once looking at the burnt-orange rim of a ’71 Domaine Gros, Richbourg, I recalled that I was entering high school as the grapes in that glass were being harvested. My go-to wine at the time, if you could call it that, was Mateus Rose, a slightly sparkling Portuguese number that I had read was popular with Rod Stewart, who had recently released his third solo LP “Every Picture Tells a Story,” with the hit “Maggie May.”

But I digress, as anyone who knows what an LP is will surely tell you.



Savor the past

The point is that for many of us, the opportunity to taste the wines from the historic vintages of the past is one that should be savored. Old wines — similar to old people — have achieved texture, character and beauty that is a result of having been afforded time to mature.



Not all old wines, of course. But there are special wines sourced from grapes born in vintages in which the sun and the seasons smiled softly upon them and were crafted by winemakers whose deft hands gently persuaded them to perfection. These are wines that have been nurtured by owners who kept them in pristine condition for decades — never too warm, nor too cold. Just right, as they awaited the moment when the twisting of the cork and the rush of air through the bottle’s neck would announce that it was time for the wine to be drunk.

My greatest old wine experience came from a bottle of Syrah from the Northern Rhone. Hermitage, to be precise. And it was not all that old. But the 1990 Hermitage Cuvee Cathelin, Domaine Jean-Louis Chave was one of those wines that demonstrated why having the patience to cellar and keep a wine for some time — in this case two decades — can be so rewarding. This was a wine from an outstanding vintage in a place that is as regarded as a mecca for lovers of Syrah.

‘The old is better’

J.L. Chave Hermitage is a family-owned Domaine based in Mauve, France, that has been growing vines and making wines in the northern Rhone since 1481. Throughout those 500 years, the responsibility for the grapes and the fine wines that are made from them has passed from father to son, from one generation to the next.

The reins and that responsibility are now held in the hands of a brilliant winemaker named Jean-Louis Chave, who is widely regarded as the 21st century’s master of Syrah. This wine was made by Jean-Louis’s father, Gerard, who was the 15th generation of the family to be involved in the production of wines.

The Cuvee Cathelin is only made in exceptional years. I remember the nose was still fresh with floral notes, as though I were smelling a field at the base of the mountain where the fruit was grown. It was complex, structured, fruity, leathery, smoky, spicy and rocky. There were berries, peppers, a little chocolate and a hint of vanilla. In short, there were all of those things that make great Syrah such a pleasure to drink. The intensity and richness were overwhelming. For more than an hour, I savored my glass of wine and observed subtle changes with each sip.

I still have the empty bottle in my wine rack as a reminder of the experience, though the moment is etched in memory. While I do not know the Bible well, I do know a passage or two that relate to wine. This one, Luke 5:39, kind of sums up the experience:

“No man also having drunk old wine straightway desires new: for he said, The old is better.”

Kelly J. Hayes lives in the soon-to-be-designated appellation of Old Snowmass with his wife, Linda, and black Lab, Vino. He can be reached at malibukj@aol.com.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.