Which wines are worth saving

And which should I drink now?

If you love it, don’t leave it: some wines aren’t made for cellaring. Photograph: Tomekbudujedomek/Getty Images

My neighbours, enviably, have a cellar where modest bordeaux and burgundies from the early noughties lie blanketed in dust – nice enough, but never destined to last the 17 or 18 years over which they’ve been lovingly hoarded. And my neighbours are not the only ones: many of us have wines that we think are too good to drink, so we keep them until they’re no good to drink. (I’m guilty, too, in case you think I’m being unconscionably smug.)

That is not an argument for chucking them out, but rather for starting to work our way through those bottles as a weekend treat, so long as you also have a back-up, because some will sadly have become utterly undrinkable. Yes, some may pleasantly surprise you, but you just can’t bank on it.

You get a similar phenomenon with bottles that have been opened: some stay fresh, others fall apart after 24 hours. The remaining third of a bottle of Newton Johnson Family Chardonnay I had forgotten about was still tasting good three weeks later, as was the grüner veltliner in today’s picks, which shows that whites as well as reds can age and stand exposure to air.

read more

WHY WINE AND COFFEE?

Wine and Coffee are both highly aromatic, complex drinks and can share lots of flavor characteristics. For some, sipping on a cup of coffee every morning (and afternoon) has become a routine. For others, winding down the night with a glass of wine is their ritual. For many, wine and coffee are an integral part of our life – we need them!

read more