We review more than our fair share of wines that are long past their conventional drinking window. Some times it's intentional. This is another of those unintended happy accidents.
Dark red. Stone and alcohol on the nose. Medium body. Prominent tannins. Notes of plum and prunes. Medium finish. Paired well with dinner in our hotel room of Manhattan clam chowder as we spend our last night in Chicago before moving to our new home.
Who would have guessed that a $14 bottle from Santorini would still be drinking well after 13 years?
Well, to answer my own question, a few of our fellow CT reviewers might have hazarded that guess from their own experience.
Take a look at the two most recent reviews in 2016 of the 2003 vintage (also 13 years afterwards):
10/5/2016 - BRADFRIEDLANDER LIKES THIS WINE:89 Points Lots of prune and bright tannins. Needed more time to open, but we couldn't resist drinking it. Dark red /purple. Great wine with food.
4/8/2016 - BRADFRIEDLANDER LIKES THIS WINE:89 Points Very cherry. Dark red with limited brown. Medium finish. Good food wine - eggplant, spicy chicken, and peppery salad.
And take a look at the latest review in 2021 of the 2013 vintage (9 years later):
2/10/2021 - KMOOSE LIKES THIS WINE:96 Points Wow this has aged wonderfully. Bursting with fruit, still after 9 years. Hint of Play Dough of all things. Tannins are ample but scaled back compared to when it was younger. Love it.
I'm sure that you can't cellar any wine for as long as you want but our experience, including with this wine, suggests to me that there are way more cellar-worthy wines than are dreamt of in received wine wisdom.
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Found this one in our cellar. PnP with take-out Japanese in a hotel room. Deep red with some brown on the edges. Muted berry and hay on the nose. Medium body. Well integrated. Notes of dark cherry, blackberry and plum. Still drinking quite well 16 years later. Excellent storage certainly gave this wine a helping hand.
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Pomegranate in color. Cedar, moss and chocolate on the nose. Medium body. Lively mouthfeel with tons of tannins and abundant acidity. The primary flavor profile of most red wines we drink is predominately fruity of some sort. Not so this wine. While there's dark fruit and black raspberry in the background, the primary notes evoke earth, flint and licorice with a hint of vanilla. Medium to long finish. At 17 years out and 5 years beyond the end of most drinking windows, this wine is no longer "weird" but can still provoke differing opinions.
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2008 Argyros Atlantis Red
3/25/2021 - 312 Likes this wine: 89 Points
We review more than our fair share of wines that are long past their conventional drinking window. Some times it's intentional. This is another of those unintended happy accidents.
Dark red. Stone and alcohol on the nose. Medium body. Prominent tannins. Notes of plum and prunes. Medium finish. Paired well with dinner in our hotel room of Manhattan clam chowder as we spend our last night in Chicago before moving to our new home.
Who would have guessed that a $14 bottle from Santorini would still be drinking well after 13 years?
Well, to answer my own question, a few of our fellow CT reviewers might have hazarded that guess from their own experience.
Take a look at the two most recent reviews in 2016 of the 2003 vintage (also 13 years afterwards):
10/5/2016 - BRADFRIEDLANDER LIKES THIS WINE:89 Points
Lots of prune and bright tannins. Needed more time to open, but we couldn't resist drinking it. Dark red /purple. Great wine with food.
4/8/2016 - BRADFRIEDLANDER LIKES THIS WINE:89 Points
Very cherry. Dark red with limited brown. Medium finish. Good food wine - eggplant, spicy chicken, and peppery salad.
And take a look at the latest review in 2021 of the 2013 vintage (9 years later):
2/10/2021 - KMOOSE LIKES THIS WINE:96 Points
Wow this has aged wonderfully. Bursting with fruit, still after 9 years. Hint of Play Dough of all things. Tannins are ample but scaled back compared to when it was younger. Love it.
I'm sure that you can't cellar any wine for as long as you want but our experience, including with this wine, suggests to me that there are way more cellar-worthy wines than are dreamt of in received wine wisdom.
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2005 Bodegas Caro (Barons de Rothschild / Catena) Amancaya
3/23/2021 - 312 Likes this wine: 91 Points
Found this one in our cellar. PnP with take-out Japanese in a hotel room. Deep red with some brown on the edges. Muted berry and hay on the nose. Medium body. Well integrated. Notes of dark cherry, blackberry and plum. Still drinking quite well 16 years later. Excellent storage certainly gave this wine a helping hand.
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2004 Alonso del Yerro Ribera del Duero
3/8/2021 - 312 Likes this wine: 90 Points
Pomegranate in color. Cedar, moss and chocolate on the nose. Medium body. Lively mouthfeel with tons of tannins and abundant acidity. The primary flavor profile of most red wines we drink is predominately fruity of some sort. Not so this wine. While there's dark fruit and black raspberry in the background, the primary notes evoke earth, flint and licorice with a hint of vanilla. Medium to long finish. At 17 years out and 5 years beyond the end of most drinking windows, this wine is no longer "weird" but can still provoke differing opinions.
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