The Oak Barrel's Guide to Enjoying Older Wines

The Oak Barrel has an extensive collection of aged wines that have been stored at optimal temperature and humidity conditions for most of their life. To ensure the best experience when purchasing these wines, you should understand several things:

1 - Manage your expectations: old wine is not like new wine. This is due in part to changes in the way wine is made; we are accustomed to wines that are intended to be consumed young, which are often made in a rich, fruity and dense style; many fine older bottles never had those characteristics in the first place. As those bottles have aged, they have the potential to develop much more complexity and nuance both aromatically and, on the palate, but – as suggested above - they are also less beefy and fruity; more subtle, nuanced, sometimes softer, sometimes a bit more austere.

2 - Let the bottle rest before you open it, preferably standing-up to allow the sediment to settle. Travel – even locally – can adversely affect wine, especially by dispersing sediment throughout the bottle, so ideally, you’d wait at least several days before opening the bottle. We recommend resting in a standing position for at least a week and up to 4 weeks for older wines.

3 - Don’t despair if you have some trouble with the cork. Cork, being a natural substance, lacks the consistency of man-made materials, and comes to wineries in a range of quality; even the most expensive corks can be irregular. Mould on the top of a cork is not cause for despair, as this is almost always confined to the part of the cork that doesn’t touch the wine. Some older corks will be quite damp or partially saturated with wine – again not cause for alarm. Some older corks will be very dry and crumbly and difficult to extract; this is not cause for despair either. If available, we recommend using a pronged cork remover (Ah-So) rather than a corkscrew.

4 - Decant the wine. It’s very important to eliminate the sediment from the wine, and no amount of very careful pouring will achieve this (unless you’re really expert and pour out the bottle in one-go). When not separated from wine, sediment will make the wine taste bitter and astringent, will shorten the finish of the wine, and of course is unappealing in the glass. In addition, many older wines will also benefit from some exposure to a little air. However, we do not recommend breathing older wines for longer periods.

5 - Don’t despair if the wine isn’t immediately spectacular – or even very appealing. We can cite numerous instances of older wines improving with air / time open.

6 - For most of us, drinking old wine is something of a special occasion, and it’s fun to treat it as such: handle the wine with care, share it with someone you love (or at least like), take some time to find something good to eat with the wine, let yourself relax and breathe along with the vino.