Hi all

I've been lurking for a while.

I just thought I should share a data point with you with regard to
ageing of wines - many new winemakers like myself have yet to experience
one of their own wines with appreciable bottle age.

In 2000 I made a shiraz that drank well from a few months after bottling
through to about 3 years afterwards. In 2001 I made a grenache and a
shiraz. 3 months after bottling both wines were AWFUL. A strong ethyl
acetate and acetaldehyde flavour in both. Pretty much undrinkable. So
I put them out of sight and out of mind, knowing that they couldn't get
worse.

Today i opened a bottle of the grenache by mistake. Heavy deposits in
the bottle - it didn't look good. But the wine was brilliantly ruby-red
and clear, fruity and very pleasant. It has a slight sherry-like
aftertaste (minor oxidation, I believe) but nothing to turn up your nose
about.

So newbie winemakers - hang on to those bottles for a while and
appreciate some of the positive changes that occur. Not every wine will
get better, but this one sure did (can't wait to open some of the shiraz
next).

Chris