Ancient wine help

Fishcake_Random

Hey,

I`m having a massive pre christmas clean and sort out and I have discovered hidden in the back of the cuboard some old bottles of wine. Not being much of a drinker I had completely forgotten about them for a long long time. My question is are they still any good? I know some wines can keep for years and be rather expensive etc and have heard of people making money by "putting down" wine etc but I think these are only cheap ones and wouldnt do that? Dont they turn into vinegar or something like it?

I have;

1 bottle of Courberoc Merlot 2001 (i know i know):rolleyes:
1 bottle of Yaldara Estate Shiraz 2006
1 bottle of Fratelli Cei Chianti 2002

2 bottles of Bucks fizz that went out at the end of August (still okay?)

Advice is gratefully welcome and ideas of what to do with it if it is okay to drink?

Kind regards
Fishcake
x x x

abaxas

This is the OS forum.

The OS answer is to taste them, if they taste off chuck em, if not drink em!

But I'd be suprized if any of these was off. Just drink em.

Daisymac_2

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

Hey,

I`m having a massive pre christmas clean and sort out and I have discovered hidden in the back of the cuboard some old bottles of wine. Not being much of a drinker I had completely forgotten about them for a long long time. My question is are they still any good? I know some wines can keep for years and be rather expensive etc and have heard of people making money by "putting down" wine etc but I think these are only cheap ones and wouldnt do that? Dont they turn into vinegar or something like it?

I have;

1 bottle of Courberoc Merlot 2001 (i know i know):rolleyes:
1 bottle of Yaldara Estate Shiraz 2006
1 bottle of Fratelli Cei Chianti 2002

2 bottles of Bucks fizz that went out at the end of August (still okay?)

Advice is gratefully welcome and ideas of what to do with it if it is okay to drink?

Kind regards
Fishcake
x x x

I would say they wouldnt be drinkable, you may get away with the 2006 Shiraz but most wines now have a sell by date and most of those on the Merlot and Chianti I have here are 1 year after they were bottled, the bucks fizz will probably be a bit orange 'bitty' when you open it, it sort of curdles, you may want to try them, you will know if the wine is off, but be careful as you can get quite a stomach upset.

Larumbelle

Usually if you buy wine in this country the label will give you an idea of when the wine will taste best - if you buy it from anywhere other than a wine merchants it will usually be at optimum drinking time when you buy it, since that's when it'll fetch the most money for the seller. The year on the bottle doesn't necessarily mean the wine has been kicking around in your cupboards the whole time, it's rare even for plonk to be sold the same year as it was produced (which is the year on the label) so you probably bought the 2006 bottles last year at the earliest. As for 2001 wines, well, I regularly buy 2001 wines now, and I buy older ones if it's a special occasion and I'm flush! These are wines that were made in 2001 and are ready for drinking now, of course, but you know what I'm getting at.

Unless there is mould or an odd 'off' taste you will be able to drink them with no ill effects (at least, no more than drinking any other alcohol in similar quantities, if you catch my drift ) How well it has kept will probably depend on how it has been stored. If the bottles were kept upright all this time and had 'proper' corks not screw or plastic ones, the cork may well have dried up, letting air in, when you open a bottle you'll be able to tell by the musty smell and taste if this has happened. (That's when it'll turn to vinegar!) Otherwise the wine probably won't taste as good as it would have if you'd drunk it within it's optimum time, but it might well still taste okay, even though it's cheaper stuff... :beer:

Incidentally, I think standard practise in these situations is to palm it off as a donation to the school tombola or as a gift if you're going to dinner with someone who doesn't drink wine. Either way, they will then palm it off on another unsuspecting host, and so on, until someone like me spoils the party by actually drinking it Having wine of this nature circulating seems to be some kind of tradition amongst my circle of friends :rotfl:

No idea about the bucks fizz, I can't drink it!

EDITED TO ADD: A quick google shows that the two 'newer' wines are both still on retail sale for that year, so as long as they're not 'corked' should still be fine. The Courberoc I haven't found for that year, but if I were you I'd give it a fair shot, it does seem to be sold 'later' than the other two. Go for it! Drink and be merry...

brightonman123

if the cork/seal looks unbroken, and alcholol content is 14% or more, should be ok..

only one way to find out!:beer:

belfastgirl23

I have never ever had experience of either forgetting about wine or of it going off sorry...agree with the others though, taste it and see.

Would be very surprised if the 2006 was a problem though...and the bucks fizz are only a couple of months out of date...

Fishcake_Random

Thanks everyone, I`m at a work meeting tonight so when I come home i`ll try popping open one of the bucks fizz and see if its any good.

Thank you for all your help!!!!
regards
Fishcake
x x x