How often do you look through your wine collection and spot a bottle that at some time long past you had decided was worth waiting to drink? If you are like me…the answer is very often. Or, is there a wine that you intended to drink in short order only to purchase a ‘sexier’ option. That original bottle is too often forgotten.

There are certainly some bottles that you know you were saving ‘for a special occasion’ (the special occasion is discussed in an earlier post), but there are many more bottles that are saved in hopes of gracefully (hopefully) aging. However, all wines do reach a peak of drinkability or maturity. For some wines that peak is very short, but eventually all wines simply become fruitless alcoholic beverages with no character and no value.

You could mark each bottle with a professional or personal ‘drink best by’ notice. However, virtually no one is sufficiently organized to tag each bottle. You could rely on your unfailing memory as when you intended to enjoy a particular bottle. Of course, that memory failure is why most of us did not get into (or even apply to) Harvard. You could have organized your wine cellar/collection to be assured that wines that are most ready to drink are in the most accessible locations. Unfortunately, to organize wine collections to assure optimal drinkability exceeds the organizational capability of most people.

Ultimately, we often come to distrust that forgotten bottle. Is it too old? Alternatively, what if it is not too old? What if you are opening it too early? Really? What’s the actual risk? Are you concerned that in some philosophical universe you are enjoying an older wine when you are not entitled to enjoy it? If you don’t remember why the bottle is still in the collection, then what’s the risk in drinking the bottle? Many questions, but there are reasonable answers.

A personal recommendation…when you are looking for something to enjoy with dinner, of just to sip, pull two bottles from the collection…something old…something new. If the older bottle is still drinkable, enjoy it. If the older wine is well over the peak of drinkability then the response should be, “oh well, waited too long’, and open the younger wine.

Recently, Joy and were preparing to enjoy a meal of leftover pasta and beef. This was clearly not a special meal or occasion. A trip to wine coolers (no cellars in the Low Country of South Carolina) yielded two interesting bottles.  The first, a 1998 Vinakoper Capo d’Istria Cabernet from the Adriatic Coast of Slovenia. We had acquired this bottle while a partner in Tri-Wines, a agency devoted to importing Slovenian wines to the United States. The second, a 2003 Massena 11^th Hour Shiraz. We purchased this bottle during the height of the ‘Australian Invasion’. Many of you may remember when Australian wines were hot. Both wines had been sadly ignored for many years.

I did not look at reviews and recommendations for cellaring until we sampled both wines.

Vinakoper Cab is recommended, by the winemakers, to be enjoyable for a decade. The Massena was thought to be at its peak a few years ago. Neither wine was likely improving while sitting in the coolers. Our personal taste test revealed a Cabernet that past its peak, but still offered hints of dark fruit and was still drinkable the next day. The Massena was a revelation. This 2003 Shiraz, which had been awarded a 94-96 rating by Robert Parker, was in balance, had wonderful deep color, and offered excellent blueberry and red fruit elements from the nose through the velvety finish. We enjoyed both wines with the ‘leftovers’.

Unless you have a better memory than me, or you have an organize fetish that assures wines ready to drink are marked or in an optimal position in the collection, I suspect many of you have a wine or two that is hiding/forgotten in the cellar and that would elevate that meal of leftovers in which we all occasional partake. If you have saved the bottle, and you have uncovered it, you should enjoy it.

Please consider sharing the ‘finds’ in your cellar with other readers.