If you are buying wine to put away for a decade or more, think first about where you going to keep it. That’s much more important than deciding which wine to put down, especially if your cellaring plans stretch to 20 years and beyond. The best and/or most expensive wine in the world will not age gracefully if the storage conditions are not right. The closer to perfect you get them, the better the chance you’ll open a bottle you bought two decades ago and say “wow” and not “ugh.”
What’s perfect? Think temperature, humidity, light and vibration. The latter two you don’t want at all. So don’t leave your Petrus or Lafite in the kitchen wine rack or light up your cellar on a permanent basis. Wine doesn’t like light when it’s busy ageing. Don’t also put it away under the stairs or in a cellar next to a busy subway line. It doesn’t like being shaken.
The optimum cellar temperature for long-term ageing is 12-13 C. A bit higher or lower are all right as long as they are fairly stable. But 10 C in winter and 25 C in summer is not ideal. A year-round 16 C or 17 C would be better. If the cellar is too dry the exterior end of the corks can shrink and perhaps let in unwanted air. If it is too moist the labels will suffer, perhaps even become unreadable with time. Humidity of 70-80 per cent is where you want to be.
Almost no-one gets everything exactly right. But these are good targets to aim for if you’re serious about ageing wine for profit or pleasure.
Choosing a wine to put down is, at best, a hit-and-miss affair. The expensive Petrus or Lafite you nursed through a couple of decades could turn out to be corked when you open it. So could a bottle with a less distinguished pedigree. If you are ageing your wine because you’ve a hunch that a particular vintage will turn out to be the wine of the century, go for an expensive first growth Bordeaux or celebrated super Tuscan. But if you are putting the wine down for your just-born son or daughter to drink on their 21st birthday or wedding day, go for something much more modest. But not too modest. Most wine hasn’t been made to be cellared for 10 or 20 years and won’t get better with age.