I started the Short Cellar because I wanted to be able to drink something that shouldn’t be a rarity but unfortunately is: properly aged wine. But what is the big deal with aging wine? What does it actually do? And is it worth the wait?
The LCBO gives little assistance in answering these questions. 90 percent of their wine is not meant for aging at all, but is a beverage for immediate consumption. The 10 percent that could improve with age (found mainly in the Vintages section) is still young and if you want to age it, you have to do it yourself. But every once in a while, the LCBO surprises me with a good but reasonably priced wine from an older vintage. This is a wonderful treat – not only will the wine be different from anything that you usually taste, but you will be able to see exactly why cellaring is such a smart idea.
The wine to look for right now is Rene Barbier’s 2001 Seleccion Crianza Cabernet Sauvignon from Spain ($19.95 [Ed. note: No longer available], Vintages #14639). Spaniards have an appreciation for well-aged but inexpensive wines and the Spanish term “Crianza” reflects this; it means that the wine is held back from sale until at least its third year. Cabernet Sauvignon, however, is not a Spanish grape, but a French one and I first thought that perhaps this wine was just a cruddy attempt to bilk the recent popularity of that grape at the expense of more interesting native species in Spain. Turns out, however, that I was wrong: Rene Barbier was a Frenchman who moved to Spain over a hundred years ago and his family has been cultivating Cabernet Sauvignon in the soil of Catalan since that time. This is a wine with pedigree.
Un-aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a familiar taste: a hit of currants and jam supported by robust tannins (tannins are the tea-like flavours in red wine that pucker the tongue). The Rene Barbier exemplifies the graceful effects of maturation. The strong fruits have mellowed into a gentle wash of earth, clay and stewed berries. The tannins are so light and supple that they seemed melt on the tongue like a wafer of chocolate. There are no rough edges or sharply differentiated parts in this wine, just a well-integrated and harmonious whole. Comparing this wine to a younger Cabernet is like moving from the aggressive Clint Eastwood of the Dirty Hairy movies to the silver-haired devil that he is now.
Click here and follow the links to find a bottle of Rene Barbier. No sense in aging this one any further. Another couple years and the fruits will fade out altogether, leaving it a little unbalanced. But right now, uncork this and discover how age begets beauty.
Matthew Sullivan is a lawyer with the Department of Justice in Toronto. He writes a weekly blog entry here on lawandstyle.ca. The Short Cellar column appears in the print edition of Precedent. Matthew can be reached at matthew@lawandstyle.beta-site.ca.