For two millennia the Bible enjoined the faithful to drink mature wine (“No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new”), though it’s not clear why.
Before the era of bottles and cork closures (until about 400 years ago), wine was stored in casks (and other significantly less hygienic containers) to be decanted for service as required. There was nothing to slow its progress from fermented fruit juice to vinegar (and plenty to contaminate it along the way). Those who cared about flavour rather than alcohol often preferred the rough and ready. Older wines might more easily deliver terminal infirmity than evolution.
Airtight packaging brought less uncertainty. The more complex secondary and tertiary flavours associated with mature wine, together with the importance of giving the tannins time to soften and polymerise, made ageing wine more than simply a fashion. In an era before climate change, there was a palpable benefit in deferring gratification.
Nowadays wines go to bottle in a generally much softer condition. Vinification strategies, together with generally warmer harvest conditions, have contributed to this change. Tannins are creamier, the fruit is more immediately accessible. By the same token, wines tend to begin their visible decline sooner. Live fast, expect an early death.
For the past several iterations of the triannual Cape Wine gathering in Cape Town, seven of the Cape’s best-known prestige producers have hosted an event at which they present a few vintages of two of their top wines. This year’s gathering, where each producer selected wines from the fully mature to the still-very-youthful, hinted at how we might look at the way wines age in the changing climatic landscape.
The Kanonkop Pinotage 2022 looked prettier and more generous than the 2003 and 2009. However, the same wasn’t true of the Paul Sauer, where the 1995 and the 2004 provided strong evidence that where cultivars transform with the elapse of time, waiting is worth it. This was also evident at Vilafonte — and for the same reason. The maiden 2003 Series C showed lovely intensity, while the 2009 is holding up better than many wines from that vintage.
With the Meerlust line-up (and the even more remarkable array of old vintages shown at the estate’s 50th vintage celebration), the ability of cooler climate cabernet to age gracefully was evident. The best bottle of the 1978 cabernet (presented earlier in the week at the estate) was simply splendid. You could say the same about the Hamilton Russell pinots noirs, based at least on the 1999 Hamilton Russell shown at the Seven Wineries tasting.
This rule of thumb applies to the Mullineux’s Schist Syrah. A newer cellar, Mullineux cannot yet rival Meerlust and Kanonkop for ancient vinoteque stocks. However, the 2010 (the oldest in the line-up) was not only the best of the trio at the moment but one of the most impressive wines I sampled over the evening. The extra maturation served the cellar’s 2013 Old Vines White equally well. Neither the 2017 nor the 2021 could match it yet for integration and complexity.
With several of the other white wines, the more middle-aged bottles appeared best. The 2018 Hamilton Russell Chardonnay delivered a better combination of complexity, fruit and freshness than the 2012, while the 2023 was palpably too young.
The same was true of the Klein Constantia Perdeblokke. The 2010 was a little tired but still enjoyable, while the 2017, though showing some evolution, compensated for it with depth of flavour.
With the Sadie Family Palladius, the middle-aged example offered the best combination of evolution and brightness. The 2016 was way ahead of the 2009, while the 2020 was not yet out of the starting blocks.
Rules of when to drink a wine are different when it comes to those preserved with sugar. The vertical line-up of Vin de Constance was impressive throughout, though while the 2021 and 2022 were enormously seductive, there was more resonance and complexity as the wines aged, and this was most evident in the most mature, the 2012.
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