Vintage or FAIL?

"Men are like wine - some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age"

Pope John XXIII

C and I recently moved back into Mum's place to save up for our wedding.  We were clearing out the kitchen cupboards to make room for my copious amounts completely normal sized hoard of baking gear when we stumbled upon a treasure trove of old bottles of wine.

Now, we are talking high quality vino here: a 2000 Bordeaux, a 1999 Chardonnay, a couple of 5-10 year old Australian reds.  My dad was a big red wine enthusiast and between bottles he bought and ones we got as gifts we seem to have amassed a bit of a collection over the years.  There was even the red I bought for him in France when I was on exchange there back in 2000 that he was going to open on my 21st birthday.  When dad passed away, there was no one else in the house to appreciate the alcomohol and so the bottles sat in the back of the pantry, gathering dust, forgotten...until now.

So what to do with this antique wine hoard?  I mean we could try to sell them but they've been sitting in the kitchen cupboard this whole time...not kept in a fandangled temperature and climate controlled cellar of any sort.  Will they still be good? Or will they be vinegar?

C suggested that we should open one bottle at a time, take them to a dinner party or out to a restaurant and basically play wine russian roulette.  It will either be an amazing drop or will it be super bad: Vintage or FAIL?


Here are the contenders:

In the red corner:

- 2003 Rosemount Estate, McLauren Vale, Show Reserve, Shiraz.

- 2004 Bordeaux, Chateau la Serre, Grand Cru Classe, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Merlot.

- 2003 Cotes de Rhone, Paul Jaboulet Aine, Selection par Louis Jaboulet.

- 1999 Lindemans Padthaway Reserve Shiraz.

- 1999 Chateau La Grange, Pomerol, Bordeaux.

- 2000 Chateau de Pez, Saint Estèphe, Grand Vin, Bordeaux.

- 2000 Babich Irongate, Hawkes Bay, Cabernet Merlot. 



And in the white corner:


- 2002 Delta Marlborough Chardonnay.

  
So as you can see there are some names of note and some that were prob el cheapo when they were first bought but the one thing they all have in common now is time.  They have all been aged for 6 to 11 years.  And as the wise Pope said some will get better with age and others will be vinegar.  Which is which? Well time will tell.

Now C and I both know very little about wine and wine drinking (unless you call watching Sideways as a crash course?).  So if anyone knows anything about these bottles, how well they are supposed to age, how much they might be worth, which we should open first... please enlighten us - leave a comment! 

We'll be opening these bottles sporadically over the next little bit and blogging about them so stay tuned for the next episode of Vintage or FAIL?