A nod to the aged.

I love old wines. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before but let me reiterate, I really, really love old wines. I love the whole idea of old wines. I love that someone had the foresight, or perhaps the accidental mischance, to keep a bottle for some length of time, long enough for the wine to noticeably change. But of course, wine is constantly changing, it is a liquid at equilibrium, bending to the laws of physics, of thermodynamics, of chemistry and biology. Tannins change, whether you believe the now old way of looking at it – that the reason tannins soften and fade over time is that they polymerize and grow large enough to fall out of solution. Or whether you believe that we don’t yet have a good clue of the nature of tannins, or probably much else. Solutions at equilibrium are complex and ever changing, either in a flow of individual molecules or on a grand scale. It’s even tougher since as soon as you begin to study it, to analyze it, guess what? It changes. Ever study electron theory? You can never know where an electron is at a precise moment in time, only the probability of where it is. Must be a frustrating thing about electrons, it sure is about wine. Frustrating, and wonderful.

I suppose someone will someday invent a machine that analyzes and predicts how you will react to a given wine at a given time. Based on your genetic code I imagine. You will probably be able to order a wine that is built for your own tastes, one guaranteed to please every time. I most emphatically hope that I do not live to see this technological marvel, but when AI software becomes able to write college essays indistinguishable from a human, how far behind can it be? Perhaps it is here already. Troubling thought.

Speaking of aging, 2020 reds seem to be most people’s idea of a sure bet for the long haul. I agree in theory, with two caveats; Stop drinking them! I know they’re wonderful now but give them a chance to mature a bit. It’s not every year we get to speak of a bunch of Finger Lakes reds that need to “lose their baby fat”. Try to play the long game. The other thing is, I’m hedging my bets and sitting on a bunch of 2019’s. I think that in ten or fifteen years we’ll remember this as a sleeper of a vintage. Not the nearly-rich body of some 2020’s, but with gorgeous structure and a leanness that I’m quite taken with. Save a few.

Old people can be pretty cool too. Not when they’re telling the kids to get the hell off the lawn, but when they talk of old shit. So much of it is lost almost the minute it happens. We remember the fads and trends and forget the wonderful details. Even if it’s not something you’re particularly interested in, I bet you can find an interesting half hour conversation with any old man or woman you meet. Get them past the bitching stage and onto something that’s really important to them. We all get richer for interacting with other human beings. Here’s some old fogey observations I find to be more and more true:

• Listen more. No one every learned anything while they were talking.
• Appreciate something well made each and every day. Could be anything: a well played musical instrument, a cheese danish (shout out to the Blue Heron in Penn Yan), a savory cup of coffee, freshly brewed, and a wine. Make it a crafted wine, not a created one.
• It can’t be said enough, enjoy the moment. You can plan for the future and learn from the past, remember to appreciate today.
• That last one again. It really does go by so fast.
• Surround yourself with interesting people, if you keep your mouth shut you might eventually become interesting too.
• Before speaking, ask yourself, will this improve on silence? (credit to Master Chief Wayne Meyers.)
• Pay attention to old people and old wines. They won’t be perfect but the best will be a true reflection of where they came from and what they’ve been through.
• I guess I could start over and just have one observation: Shut yer mouth and learn something. Huh, maybe my old man was onto something.

The list is repetitive. I haven’t discovered anything new, just the same basic stuff over and over. It could also be stated more succinctly as: Don’t be a dick.

Anyway, old wines. Getting a good one carries a lot of risk. You can assume most or all of the risk by buying the wines young and storing them yourself. This means you have to be willing to stick your neck out and buy young wines that you have determined, or been told, would age well. It ain’t necessarily easy, common wisdom aside, but it’s doable with some (possibly expensive) practice. Acidity, tannins, and residual sugar may give a wine the ability to get better with time, but if it was as simple as that everyone would just add acid, or sugar, or even tannin. These may improved the balance of a wine in the moment, but the wine must still have something to say. It doesn’t have to be brilliant in its youth, but it must be interesting at its core. It must have something to build upon, a structure, fittingly enough, something to wrap itself around. To infiltrate. And so on…

So, old people. Old wines. Make room for them in your life. They may be unapproachable on the surface, the rough edges might grate. Get past it, give them some time. Find some common ground. I promise you that the vast majority of the time you will learn something, sometimes something that might change your life. Or at least your perception. As John Prine once sang: We are the lonely, all together. All together, we’re all alone. I truly believe that all any of us want is to be heard, to have a say in things. It’s particularly true as you get older since you’re likely to have more to talk about. Find an old person, open an old wine, learn.

2017 Hosmer Limited Release Riesling & 2015 Kelby James Russell Riesling.

A couple of somewhat aged Rieslings from two fairly young winemakers. It’s perhaps appropriate to try them together since I’ve always found Julia’s and Kelby’s wines to be completely different, yet to have a certain similarity of structure. These two prove the point. Excellent examples of FLX Riesling, they’re drinking really well right now, but no hurry, they’ll be talking for a long time yet. (That’s a guess, but hopefully a somewhat educated one.) I believe 2015 and 2017 were somewhat similar, non-extreme vintages, but I’m sure one of you winemakers will fill in details – and much appreciated you are. They both have a little petrol but the 2015 seems a little fresher, perhaps with a bit more acidic bite and, I hesitate to add, the Kelby wine seems a bit more finessed and feminine to me. That doesn’t make the Hosmer a masculine wine but, compared to the Kelby, it’s got a bit of umph. Perhaps I should just leave these sexist intonations aside and say, they are non-gender wines of a fascinating nature. These are nuances and nitpicking though, both are lovely. Above all, both are interesting. My guess is, both will become more so with time. That’s a fair guess on both winemakers too.

Cheers, Jerry