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  1. Old vintages: how to know if ...?

    How do know  if you can keep the wine during many years. 
    Open the bottle and taste for a week. If the opened  wine is nice after 1 week,  you can keep the wine during 10 years. If after 2 days, the wine is declining. Should be drunk in two years maximum.
    decanter
    My tricks, my philosophy:
    • to keep a wine in wine cellar, i recommend you magnum. It is better.
    • Neither the wine region, or the name or the color are not an indicator. I tasted old Muscadet thirty years, table wines without sulfur 10 years old, the new Beaujolais of 3 years old, a canon fronsac with a vintage 1996 . But I tasted the great wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy that did not exceed a few years.
    • The hegemony of chemicals arrived late 70s : consequently winemaking with selected laboratory yeasts. Chemical herbicides increase yields . In addition, some vineyards have 6000 or 9000 vines per hectare (see Parker book ) . Or a winemaker with 9000 feet by 50 hectoliters per hectare , is actually 100 hectoliters per hectare compared to a vineyard with 4500 vines per hectare .
    • In each  Burgundy AOC (village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru ) have quotas yields. The excess must remain on foot. Compare the soil to anise alcool like pastis and grape yield at the water for this aperitif . To concentrate pastis you add less water. To obtain a light pastis you add a lot of water . But if you let the grapes in your vineyard, you are not a wine has 50 hectares but beyond quotas. So your wine will not be concentrated and not be conducive to keep it in your wine cellar .
    • I tasted a irancy 1937  in 1999 with a small yields : Beatifull.  , Gevrey Chambertin 1969 a still very young in 2011 . Best Burgundy 1981; 1982 or 86 years are difficult from vines plowed as Pierre Bourée home in Burgundy. The old  winegrowers said ; there are no good or bad years , there is good or bad winegrower. Between 1970 and 1990 you can find good surprises but also bad with chemicals in vine
    • The 1945 vintage for Antoine Gerbelle french journalist of wine (from movie the spirit of wine ) is the greatest vintage of the century . And it was without chemical
    Conclusion: 
    - A wine for aging or old vintage vines must be plowed so that it is concentrated 
    - A healthy maturity should be mandatory, therefore an organic or biodynamic agriculture 
    - Good conservation conditions are required
    eurocave

    How to know if the old wine can be decanted ?
    Open the bottle , you serve a glass , you taste immediately and 15 minutes later. Beforehand, you close the bottle. If the wine is good from the opening and not good 15 minutes later : open the wine at the last minute
    If the wine improves aeration , you can remove the cork now . Why not decant the wine.
    NB : On the bottle of wine , tannins stick to the bottle. that is the wine should be drunk and it is at its peak of its development
    If the old wine has a color black background with edges slightly brick color : wine may still old. But  if the color is onionskin , the wine died.
    If you find a treasure in your cellar :
    • I suggest you look on the internet the name of your wine
    • The label must be legible and intact
    • The level must be above the shoulders. If the level is lower, the wine can be died
    • Demonstrate the proper storage of your wine.
    Small stores :
    • At a Paris wine shop  a woman comes to 20 pm at closing time  12 years ago. She saids
      . "I come to you or advice, my father died and had confidence in you. You can watch the wine cellar of my father and tell me if 5000 francs offered me  by your colleagues is reasonable or ridiculous. «  My colleague find box of Montrose 1982 Dom Ruinart 1963; and many other thing. There were two auctions : 70000 francs and 72,000 francs. The heiress gave no percentage for my professional friend.
    • At the same shop , I worked in 1997. A gentleman  came from a moving with dirty clothe . And told me : « i helped an grandmother and as a salary, she had given  a bottle of champagne. The name is Dom Pérignon 1969 , do you think he is good champagne" My biggest mistake is not having bought it .
    wine cellar
    About vintage 
    For me, you don’t have a good vintage or bad vintage. But just easy vintage or difficult vintage and bad or good winegrower.