Larry wrote:

>
> Last question. Would a wine like this(I seem to pick a lot of young
> shirzes) "mellow" very much in say 2-3 years or would this be the
> basic character of the wine no matter how long you cellar it?

Larry,
That's *exactly* why we do cellar wines. I assure you that I get no
particular pleasure from salting away a powerhouse red wine for 10+ years,
but the end in this case does justify the means: the tannins mellow out and
become smooth, the fruit of its youth comes forward and new, interest
flavors emerge. Different folks like their wines at differing stages of
maturity. I am a relative oenopaedophile compared to the likes of Ian
Hoare, Bill Spohn and John Taverner (to name but a few) -- yet I still age
many wines for a decade or more before drinking them. You will make up
your own mind about how long to give them before they reach their peak in
your eyes. That's why it's so useful to buy multiple bottles of a wine and
drink it at various stages of its development. You learn not only about
the wine, but also about your own tastes. Too many people use Robert
Parker's or the Wine Spectator's "expected maturity" as some sort of gospel,
when in fact it assumes a common set of tastes and storage conditions,
neither of which is a particularly good assumption.

HTH
Mark Lipton