lgsjr – Page 26 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Getting Care in Wine Country

We all go wine tasting for the sheer joy of it. Alas, there are some times that our pleasure is tempered by illness or other health-related problems. Now, we’re not talking about major issues that simply make it impossible for you to continue visiting wineries, when only a hospital will suffice. But even in Wine Country, people get colds and allergies, or need to see a doctor of pharmacist for something minor. This has happened to us more than a few times, so we’d like to share a few of our experiences, in hopes that our readers will benefit from them.

Photo courtesy of Farmacia Trovate.

Wine Country is full of growing things, and some of them make us sneeze and rub our eyes. In the United States we’re never far from a CVS, a Walgreen or a Rite-Aid. (There’s a very large CVS on Trancas Street in Napa where we always seem to wind up on our trips to Napa Valley.) Of course, we can find everything that we can at home, but these drug stores are especially important if we forget a prescription. (It’s happened a few times). We’ve had to call our physician for an emergency prescription, or have our credit card company do it for us. We have had some high expenses this way, because our insurance company wasn’t amused about paying for the same meds twice in a week or so.

Of course, there were special considerations when we’re buying medicines in Wine Country. We had to be careful about pills that made us drowsy, because we were driving…and tasting wine. The label on many medications warn not to do either of those things.

We have to double down on those problems when we’re tasting wine outside the US. Even in countries where English is the language spoken, they don’t call over-the-counter medicines by the same name as we do. We’ve had a headache in Australia and wanted something strong. We looked for Advil and remembered that it’s properly called ibuprofen. We got dull looks when we asked for either of those names until a friendly pharmacist remembered that ibuprofen in Australia is called Nurofen.

And where English isn’t spoken it’s even more difficult. We had a little nagging cough in Chianti. We had to figure out how to say “cough drops” in Italian. In this little village, there was no internet connectivity to look up the translation. “Coffo” didn’t work. Finally, a little forced cough and pantomiming the drops got us a box. (It’s “tosse” in Italian, by the way.) If there were any counterindications, there was no way we were going to know. By the way, if you’re visiting France, the French word for cough is “toux” and cough drop is “pastille”.

If you ever need a doctor or a dentist on short notice, most hotels keep a list of nearby practitioners who can help out-of-towners. There are also emergency rooms, of course, but they’re not going to help if, as happened to us, a tooth filling came out. But the nice people at our hotel contacted a dentist. The next morning we were patched up and back on our way to sample the fines wines in that region.

Hospices de Beaune

This being an edition of Power Tasting focused on health, choosing a location for the Places to Visit column poses a particular challenge. But aha! What about a hospital? A hospital as a place to visit while wine tasting? Well, the Hospices de Beaune used to be a hospital and it’s smack-dab in the middle of Burgundy’s famed Côte d’Or (or Golden Coast).

Beaune is a small town that forms the demarcation between the two Burgundian regions that are the home to some of the world’s most well-regarded Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. To the north is the Côte de Nuit (the Night Coast, with wines of more minerality and structure) and to the south is the Côte de Beaune, with more luscious reds, more delicate whites. In 1443, the Chancellor of Burgundy founded a hospital in this town. Now, a hospital in the Middle Ages was not a good place to get well. The rich stayed sick at home and the poor went to hospitals in the expectation that they would die there.

Photo courtesy of beaune-tourism.com.

But the Hospices de Beaune was different. It was intended to be a palace for the poor and palatial it was…and is. It has extravagant Gothic architecture, with turrets and garrets surrounding a broad courtyard. The interior, where the patients lay, features a grand, vaulted ceiling and nooks for the beds. And the roof! One of the architectural joys of ancient Burgundian châteaux is the intricate tilework on the roofs, and that at the Hospices de Beaune is among the best.

Photo courtesy of Burgundy Tourism.

Amazingly, the Hospices de Beaune continued to serve patients until 1971. Today it’s a museum where you can – you should – see it all when you go wine tasting in Burgundy. Be prepared to be wrapped in history, art and architecture. Just as much, you will be in the midst of wine history. As the Hospices was becoming established, local nobles donated land to help fund its operations. That land was in areas we now know as Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Savigny, Corton, Mazis-Chambertin, Echezeaux and Clos de la Roche as well as Beaune itself. Needless to say, these are communes that produce some of the greatest Burgundy wines. Today, the Domaines de Hospices de Beaune are spread over 60 hectares (148 acres), with Pinot Noir constituting 85% of the vines.

Once a year, in mid-November, there is a weekend-long charity auction of Hospices de Beaune’s wines. Most are Grand Crus and Premier Crus. Members of the wine trade, connoisseurs of Burgundy wines and some very serious wine lovers assemble in the Great Hall to bid on the wines. Of course, there are other festivities, including a coveted, invitation-only dinner at the nearby Clos de Vougeot château, hosted by the Chevaliers de Tastevin, the exclusive Burgundy wine society. Perhaps you’re interested in bidding on a case or two? Sorry, but they auction it off by the barrel.

If, like us, you enjoy travelling around the world-wide Wine Country, the Côte d’Or should be on your list. If you go, you should visit Beaune. Many of the top negociants have tasting rooms there. And when you do go to Beaune, make sure to leave time to see the Hospices de Beaune.

Tasting Safely

Let’s say a few things right up front: Wine contains alcohol. Alcohol is not a good thing to consume when driving. Going wine tasting means drinking alcohol and usually requires some driving.

That’s a bit of a conundrum, isn’t it? Here are some of our tips for wine tasting safely.

Know your limit. Even the most stringent state laws allow a little bit of alcohol in your blood, so it’s important for you to know how much you can sip before you hit that limit. You can’t wait until you feel the alcohol; by then it’s already too late.
If you don’t know your limit, be the first driver. For one thing, don’t go wine tasting alone. If you know you can’t take a lot, do your share of the driving before the sipping begins.

Photo courtesy of Cal Limo.

Or hire someone to drive. There are cabs, limo services and Lyft/Uber. Yes, it adds to the cost. But it ensures your safety from being pulled over and surely reduces your vulnerability to accidents.
Sip, don’t drink. That should be the motto for all wine tasting. The idea is to taste the wines so you know what to buy later on. If you’re finishing every glass put in front of you, you’re drinking too much to be safe on the road.
Share a tasting. If you and your companion share a tasting and only sip; and if you taste, say, five wines at any given winery, you’re likely to consume around a half a glass of wine each. If you figure in the time for looking around the winery, talking with the server, maybe buying some wine, it will take up an hour. Thus, if you visit six wineries and take an hour for lunch, you’ll consume three glasses in seven hours. Is that within your limit? If so, you have a plan for a fine day of tasting in Wine Country. If not, see the advice above.

Photo courtesy of Texas Lone Star Valet.

Deal with the exceptions. There are some wineries that only have seated tastings and don’t permit sharing. Often these are the makers of some of the finest wines in their region and you don’t want to restrict yourself to a sip or two. It is not for us to discourage you from some of the best experiences in wine tasting. But if you particularly want to taste the Cabernet Sauvignon, go light on the Chardonnay. And maybe avoid seeing the bottom of the glass of the Merlot and the Malbec. These tastings tend to be longer, so perhaps they will account for half your day. And if you find you have consumed more wine than you expected to, cut the day short.
If you’re going to consume alcohol, put some food in your belly too. Always have breakfast before going wine tasting. Keep some crackers, chips or pretzels in the car to have something to nibble on, along with a bottle of water. Always stop for lunch. In fact, you should generally make lunch a part of your wine tasting experience. As a rule, areas where people appreciate wine have good restaurants, too. And picnicking at a winery is a treat.

Robert Mondavi Winery

Power Tasting began publication at the beginning of 2015 and have been reviewing wineries ever since. So how come we are just getting around to writing about Robert Mondavi (www.robertmondaviwinery.com) now? It’s because Mondavi feels like it has always been there and always will be. It’s as much as part of Napa Valley as Howell Mountain or the Napa River.

Robert Mondavi, the man, was synonymous with Napa Valley during his lifetime and has achieved legendary status since his death in 2008. Robert Mondavi, the winery, has turned out wines of the highest quality for so long that it’s easy to forget that the rating organizations accord them high 90’s every year. Robert Mondavi is wonderful, but being wonderful for so long robs it of trendiness.

For those of us who enjoy going wine tasting, the same can be said about visiting the Robert Mondavi winery in Oakville. We’ve been visiting there for so long we tend to understate how special it is. Mr. Mondavi himself dedicated himself to what he called the good life, which included art and food, as well as wine. All these are in evidence from the moment you pull up to the winery. The emblematic arch at the entrance combines respect for California’s Spanish past with an understated elegance that is still contemporary after more than 50 years.

Also in evidence at the entrance and around the grounds are statuary and other artworks from the Mondavi family’s collection. Of course, it is possible to taste wine without works of art, but it is so much more enjoyable to combine them.

The winery is laid out in the form of a V, opening to vistas of vineyards and the Mayacamas mountains. On the left is the wing for those who are interested in tours and tastings of Mondavi’s widely available wines. On the right are a tasting room for their wine club members, the gift shop and the To Kalon Room, where Mondavi’s most exclusive wines are available for tasting. [To Kalon is the name of Mondavi’s top vineyard, where the grapes for their finest Cabernet Sauvignon and Fumé Blanc are grown.] Tastings in this latter room are not inexpensive, but there is a lot to be said for being offered a vertical of the Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, as we were recently.

In the years at the beginning of Northern California’s rise to wine-making eminence, Mondavi’s Fumé Blanc was the benchmark for California white wines. While the quality has not diminished, it is probably Cabernet Sauvignon for which they are best known today. Less well renowned are their Merlot, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Not every wine is available at all times in each tasting room, but we have found that a polite request often results in finding a bottle beneath the bar.

Finally, a few words about the gift shop. Normally, we avoid shopping at wineries; there are only so many coasters and refrigerator magnets anyone needs. But the items at this winery reinforce Mr. Mondavi’s maxims about the good life. Simply put, they sell lovely things, from pottery to tableware to books. And wine, of course. The shop is especially pretty at Christmastime, when the decorations and holiday goods only add to the pleasure of a visit to this winery, a gem in Wine Country’s diadem.

Choucroute in Alsace

If you are going wine tasting in the easternmost part of France, you’ll be in Alsace, where they grow white wine grapes, mostly Riesling and Gewürztraminer. Now, those are German grapes, which is fitting because over the centuries Alsace has gone back and forth from being a part of Germany to being a part of France. It’s been French since the end of the First World War, but was German for 50 years before that.

The principal city of Alsace is Strasbourg. It looks very German in its architecture, but the feeling there is joie de vivre, not gemütlichkeit. Alsace generally and Strasbourg in particular feel like Germany with French people. And the food is a blend of the two as well. There is the expression “to be stuffed like a Strasbourg goose”, perhaps because that’s how you get fois gras, the emperor of all patés. The dish that Alsace is best known for, though, is a mixture of sauerkraut and smoked meats called choucroute.

Photo courtesy of Food and Wine.

Chou is French for cabbage. Put that together with the “kraut” in sauerkraut and you get choucroute. Today you can find this dish on menus all over France, especially in the cooler months and there are places in Paris and Lyon that make it very well. But the best is in Alsace, where it was born, and the best of the best is to be found in Strasbourg. Which restaurant? That’s like asking where’s the best pizza in Brooklyn: Everywhere!

It’s made of sauerkraut that’s baked for hours and towards the end adding the meats. At one time or another, we’ve experienced smoked ham, pork chops, frankfurters, Alsatian sausage, Toulouse sausage, Polish kielbasa, knockwurst, bratwurst, weisswurst, thickly sliced bacon, ham hocks and other meats we weren’t exactly sure about. Some people consider juniper berries to be an essential ingredient but we don’t agree with those people. There are always a few boiled potatoes and lots of Dijon mustard on the side.

On Alsatian menus you’ll also find choucroute fruit de mer, or sauerkraut with seafood, a combination that never really appealed to us. Salmon, haddock, mussels, shrimp, lobster and langoustines replace the smoked meats. It’s something to try once.

Our experiences with choucroute in France all involve overeating. It’s impossible not to. First of all, any respectable restaurant will pile up the sauerkraut on your plate. Figure a pound per person and you’re just getting started. Then all those meats! Each one is so delicious but cumulatively they’re way too much to finish. Of course, the chef could just serve you less, but instead they tempt you with Choucroute Royale, which just means the basic dish, with more of everything. It’s enough for a family of four and you’re supposed to finish it yourself!

Because of its place of origin, most people drink Alsatian wines with choucroute or a beer. Our opinion as wine lovers is that a hearty red wine goes best.

France: A Place to Visit

Despite the headline, you can’t visit France, because France isn’t just one place. (These days, you actually can’t visit France at all because of the pandemic.) The country is so varied that you can’t take it all in, either as a visitor or even as a resident. It’s cities and countryside and mountains and beaches and, of course, vineyards.

For a wine lover, visiting France is to have a little time in paradise, and almost every sector of the country grows grapes for wine. But the grapes in those vineyards differ tremendously, even those a short distance from each other. For example, if you start in the city of Lyons and drive just a half hour northwards, the vines hang heavy with Gamay and the wines are Beaujolais. The whites are Chardonnay, as they are just a bit north of Beaujolais but the red grapes are Pinot Noir.

The terraced vineyards of the Côte Rôtie.

If you leave Lyons in the other direction, again just a half hour away, you’re in the Northern Rhône and the red grapes are mostly Syrah and the whites Roussanne and Marsanne. By comparison with America, the Northern Rhône and Beaujolais are as far apart as Carneros and Calistoga; imagine totally different production between one end of Napa Valley and the other.

The heart of Champagne is only a few hours’ drive from the heart of the Côte d’Or in Burgundy. Yes, they both grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but the wines they make are totally different. So are the foods, the castles and the history of the two regions. It is not hard to envelope yourself in either place but there is a wrenching disconnect if you travel between them.

Further west, the Loire Valley, also known as the Touraine (for the city of Tours) is best known for Sauvignon Blanc. The best-known red wine is Chinon, made from Cabernet Franc, although there is plenty of Gamay grown as well. These wines, for the most part, are not as grand as those of Burgundy and Bordeaux, but they do make pleasant drinking.

The broad expanse of vineyards in the Languedoc.

Speaking of Bordeaux, the majestic red wines grown there are primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, with Sémillon the major grape for white wines. For the travelling wine taster, Bordeaux is the most difficult to visit and surely the snobbiest part of France. By contrast, head either east from Bordeaux to the Southern Rhône Valley or south to Languedoc and the red grapes are Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre and the whites are Viognier and Picpoul, among others. (Actually, in Languedoc, you’ll find a little of everything.)

And so, our advice to our wine tasting friends is not to try to visit France all at once. Instead, focus on one or at most two regions at a time. Get to know the people, the villages, the roads, the markets, the foods and of course the wines. Historically, France was stitched together from many distinct regions. To this day, a Breton and a Provençal have accents as different as a Brooklynite and a Texan. Yes, they talk the same language, but with very different accents. But the US is a very big country and France is relatively small. Going a short distance in France can change everything, from the wine to the architecture to the cuisine. But it’s all France.

Champagne de Venoge

The Champagne region of France has two principal cities: Reims and Épernay. The former is of greater interest to tourists, with its grand cathedral and quite a few top-quality Champagne houses. But Épernay is a wonderland for wine tasters. There are so many producers, great names and small, all over the town. And the center of it all is the Avenue de Champagne, a mile of mansions and industrial buildings dedicated to the production, sale and consumption of the world’s best bubbly, made from grapes grown in the chalky soil of Champagne.

You can walk along the Avenue de Champagne, stopping here and there for a dégustation (tasting). These aren’t the sips we Americans are used to when we go wine tasting. Oh no, you get a whole flute of Champagne, usually for around ten euros or so. When you do take that walk, we recommend that you stop at the Venoge Mansion (www.champagnedevenoge.com/en). This elegant building is representative of both the grandeur and the pretentiousness of Champagne.

The grandeur is easy to see…it’s all around you in Épernay. You’re supposed to be impressed by the ancient lineages of these winemaking establishments, but most only go back to the entrepreneurs of the 19^th century. De Venoge was founded by a Swiss immigrant who started his company in 1837. That’s pretty ancient for Americans but its Johnny-come-lately for the French. And although the “de” in the name sounds like nobility, it isn’t in this case. The mansion was built in 1900, but de Venoge only acquired it in 2015.

None of this history matters to you as a wine-tasting visitor. You want elegance, both in your surroundings and in your glass. And this is where de Venoge lives up to your hopes and expectations. The setting is a mansion inside high wrought iron fences. The building is in a park, most of which is behind it. But there’s a courtyard in front with a bit of lawn and on the grass there are comfortable lawn chairs and umbrellas. In one of the outbuildings, there’s a bar where you order the Champagne you want to drink and a server brings it to you as you stretch out on your lounger. Turn your back on the street and you’re out in the country, sipping Champagne at a château on a sunny afternoon. This is why you became a wine taster and this is why you went to Épernay to taste wine.

The wines themselves are quite enjoyable. We found we preferred the blanc de noirs in de Venoge’s better tier of wines, which they call Princes. (They also have a top of the line they call Louis XV, but we didn’t taste those wines.)

For the overall experience of wine tasting, de Venoge offers one of the best opportunities we have encountered in Champagne. The wines are good but no better than many others available nearby. Of course, that’s the genius of wine tasting in Champagne. They’re all good; some are just better. But you feel like you’re luxuriating at de Venoge and that’s worth a lot when you’re in this famous corner of Wine Country.

A Guide to Pronouncing French Wines

We know many Americans who are dedicated wine lovers and who enjoy going wine tasting. They love French wines but can’t pronounce them properly. Here’s a little guide by Power Tasting to help American wine tasters through the thickets of pronouncing French wines.

For some reason, we Americans find the red wines of France easier to pronounce. We have no problems with Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Merlot and Malbec. If there’s one that needs a little help, it’s Petit Verdot, the blending grape of Bordeaux. It’s pronounced peh-TEE VAIR-doe.
Sauvignon Blanc – The legend, perhaps apocryphal, is that Robert Mondavi decided not to call his Sauvignon Blanc by its proper name because he thought Americans couldn’t pronounce Sauvignon. He called it Fumé Blanc instead. The irony is that we all do very well with Sauvignon but get the Blanc part wrong. Most Americans say “blonk”. The right way is “blah” with your voice going down at the end. The “c” doesn’t get mentioned at all.
Chardonnay – We’ve got that one right.

Photo courtesy of the Wine Scholar Guild.

Sémillon – This is the primary white grape of Bordeaux and as such deserves respect. Saying “seh-MILL-un” is not right. It’s pronounced “say-MEE-yon” and it’s even sweeter when it’s made into Sauternes, which, by the way, is pronounced “SO-turn”. Do not pronounce the “s” at the end.
Champagne – This is a tough one. Americans know how to say “SHAM-pain”. But the French say “shahm-PAH-nya”. This is one case where Americans are better off with the American pronunciation.
Loire whites – We’ll let Americans off the hook with the “r” in Vouvray, since that back-of-the-throat thing isn’t even universal among French speakers. But Sancerre is “SAHN-sair” and Muscadet is “MOS-ca-day”. And there’s Chenin Blanc. We’ve already covered the Blanc part; the first word is sheh-NAN and you never pronounce the “c” at the end of Blanc.
Rhône whites – Marsanne and Roussanne are pieces of cake, as long as you pronounce the “a” in each of them as “ah”. Viognier is “VEE-on-yay”. We think Americans had these down anyway.
Alsatian whites – No problem with Riesling, but Gewürztraminer needs work. For one thing, it’s a German grape, not a French one. For another, that umlaut over the “u” causes no end of trouble. Finally, there are several acceptable variations on how to pronounce it. So here goes: ge-VOORTZ-tram-un-er. Except for that pesky umlaut, which makes you try to say OO and EE at the same time. Americans, stick with OO. Now, there’s a family of German grapes called Traminer, pronounced the way you’d think it should be, TRAM-in-er. Gewürz means spicy, so Gewürztraminer means spicy Traminer. But that confuses the pronunciation for some people, who would prefer to say ge-VOORTZ-tra-MEE-ner. Both pronunciations are correct, which is why most Americans just say “ge-WURTZ” and get on with it. You really can’t blame them.

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars

It gets a little confusing writing about Stag’s Leap (https://www.stagsleapwinecellars.com/). It’s all about the apostrophe. The district or AVA it’s in is Stags Leap (no apostrophe), a simple statement that stags do leap. Stags’ Leap (with a trailing apostrophe) refers to the leap used by many stags and is also a different winery nearby, best known for its Petite Sirah. And the leap used by a single stag – Stag’s Leap – is the one we’re talking about here.

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars is a winery of almost mythical importance in Napa Valley. Started by Warren Winiarski in 1972, his Cabernet Sauvignon was the winner of the famous Judgement of Paris contest in 1976 that put Napa Valley solidly on the map of Wine Country. In 2007, Mr. Winiarski sold Stag’s Leap to an international consortium and it hasn’t been the same since.

That last sentence might be interpreted negatively, but it was only intended to say that for the visiting wine taster, the experience is totally different from what it once was. We make no secret about our nostalgia for the old Stag’s Leap and have written about it in the past. It was the House that Winiarski built, made of wood and redolent of history.

Today’s visitor will find a modern, architecturally interesting building made of stone and glass. After you park your car, you approach the building through a garden of desert shrubs. If that seems a bit strange for Napa Valley, we think it’s just to set you up for the lushness of the vineyards on display behind the building. As soon as you enter into the building, you’ll be welcomed by a concierge, as they call their greeters, who will first check if you have a reservation and then direct you to an server whoa will introduce you to their wines. Through a vast glass window, you see some of the most storied vineyards in California: S.L.V. and Fay. These have been producing top tier Cabernet Sauvignons for decades and each produces single vineyard wines. (It was the S.L.V. that was the victor in Paris.) They also make a wine called Cask 23, which combines the grapes from the two vineyards. There is another nearby vineyard where they raise grapes for Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, but it’s the reds that make Stag’s Leap famous.

Visitors are presented with all of these wines. We recommend that you ask your server to pour all three of the Cabs at the same time so you can go back and forth and compare them. We also suggest that you ask if they have any of their Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon available. This wine is a blend of sourced grapes from around Napa Valley. Call us Philistines but we often like this wine as much as its more reputed big sisters.

On the basis of several visits, we find that the servers are quite friendly but not deeply knowledgeable about the wines they are pouring. They’re more hosts than educators. But they are well-versed in the history of the winery and seem eager to make certain that you enjoy your visit to the maximum.

No, Stag’s Leap isn’t what it once was, but what is? It is only fair to rate the winery on the basis of the experience and the wines that you have today. And on both scores, a visit to Stag’s Leap rates high.

Taking Wine Back Home

It happens so often. You’re on vacation in Wine Country and you taste a wine that’s just so good. You must buy some to have as a souvenir of your wonderful trip. The bottle gets carefully packed in your checked luggage and stored in that special place you have for your best wines. It’s being saved for a special occasion. But when that day comes, you open the bottle and…meh. “What was I thinking?” you ask yourself while you finish the bottle in disappointment.

You hear people say, “This wine just doesn’t travel”. Malarkey! That may be true for a well-aged Bordeaux that has accumulated a lot of sediment, but not for a new release that you try at most wineries.

What happened, and what can you do about it?

Everything is better on vacation. When you go wine tasting, you become enthralled with the beauty of the vineyards, the friendliness of the server, the elegance of the tasting room, the beautiful weather, some of the above, all of the above. Your dining room table is very nice, but it can’t compare to the emotional pull of a long-remembered vacation. The best advice is not to try to remember what the wine was like back then and to enjoy if for what it is now. But if you must, try to recreate the memory of that special time. Talk about it, especially with your Significant Other who shared that experience with you. The memory won’t make the wine taste better but it might make you feel better about it.

Vinho verde. Photo courtesy of visitportoandnorth.travel

It’s not the same wine anymore. When you tasted that wine, it was young. If you’ve stored it for a couple of years, it has changed. Some wines improve with age, but there are many that don’t. Most Portuguese vinho verde shouldn’t see its second birthday. A lot of Zinfandels are meant to be drunk when released. If your save-for-a-special-occasion wine is like one of those, you might want to have that occasion shortly after you arrive back home.
You waited too long. Sometimes a bottle just seems to find a spot in the rack that you don’t notice. Years go by, other purchases are made and then one day you find that special bottle, almost forgotten. Did it bake in the summers gone by? Has it reached and passed its peak? It’s not a bad idea to let some wines age, but it’s a very good idea to remember that you have something special and not let it pass its time.
It may be even better than you remember. As noted above, with time it’s not the same as the wine you tasted. If you bought well and stored the wine well, time can often smooth out some roughness and give deep-seated flavors a chance to emerge and reach their peak. When that happens, revel in the experience and remember the day you bought it. It’s days like those that make wine tasting so special.