Will today’s vintages stand the test of time?
Without even a twinge of nostalgia I can safely assert that 1974 has been the best SA vintage in living memory. Almost every cellar produced fabulous wine, and the bottles I come across even today are generally still very good, despite 42 years of erratic storage.
The 1972s came close, but they are now mostly showing their age, and the 1976s, though lighter, have been better than “pretty” and remarkably longlived. In those days there was a kind of received wisdom which said that the best vintages were from the even years (as if the heavens embraced order in the midst of a random viticultural universe). As a result there was very little respect shown for the 1971s, 1973s, and 1975s.
However, those that I’ve tasted recently have done pretty well: they lacked the weight and intensity of – in particular – the 1972s, but they have more than made up for it in balance and freshness.
Will it be possible, 30 to 40 years hence, to have the same discussion about 21st-century vintages and for that matter, will anyone care? If wines are made for earlier drinking (even if they might have been capable of ageing) will there be enough bottles about to lend substance to the debate?
This is not a discussion limited solely to Cape wine. There are many drinkers of traditional claret who doubt that the best wines produced in the past 20 years will live as long or as well as those from the mid-20th century. It’s also not a discussion driven only by economic considerations, and therefore by wine-making strategies. Some of this conversation is fuelled by climate change, that warmer vintages lead to enhanced ripeness and in turn to readier accessibility, some of it by the assumption of impatience – that the newer generation of wine drinkers is disinclined to defer gratification.
There’s also a question about vintage quality per se. Are the features of more recent vintages conducive to longevity in wine? Are modern wine makers turning out the best possible wine from the cards that nature has dealt them?
Unpacking all the components in the discussion isn’t easy, and there’s no onesize-fits-all explanation. The argument that cost of money and storage space has forced even wine makers in the most prestigious appellations to fasttrack drinkability is not sustained by the evidence.
While it is true that the larger homes of the past meant that people had more space to cellar their wines, there is more commercial cellaring capacity available nowadays than there ever was 30 years ago. There are also more investors in wine, which means more speculators banking on buyers of mature vintages. There’s also a more developed secondary market internationally than in the 1980s, which suggests that wines aren’t just being bought for dinner this evening.
However, it is also true that the combination of warmer ripening seasons (leading to more easily accessible wines) and enhanced technical knowhow in the vineyards and cellars has created a class of consumers happy to drink current release reds, because the tannins aren’t so astringent.
It’s therefore possible that their early consumption of wines which traditionally used to be aged for many years has enhanced the sense of shortage which fuels the investment market. Since these speculators may be anticipating the same potential longevity for current releases that once was true for mid-20th-century wines (and which may not apply in the future) there’s a potential crisis lurking for those who have optimistically held onto their wines for too long.
What is certain is that there are precious few current release South African reds that I’d be happy to keep for more than 10 years after the vintage and almost none which would profit from that kind of extended ageing. In a way, in my case, that’s very convenient. It means I can keep on buying without wondering whether I’m pushing my luck, given my family’s legendary longevity.