Over nearly three decades of enjoying wine, reviewer Mark Henderson has built up a wine cellar.
Like so many other wine lovers, I thoroughly enjoy opening a mature wine that I have cellared since release and savouring the complexities of age.
To do this in New Zealand necessitates starting your own cellar or befriending someone with one, as while I have had successes securing older bottles in Europe, it is very rare to find "museum'' or back vintage wines here.
Commercial realities play a part: with a mortgage and bills to pay, wineries and retailers need to move through each vintage as quickly as possible, then release the latest wine.
Money tied up in unsold wine, added to the necessary cost of proper storage, may not be fiscally viable, while wineries may justifiably fear that consumers just will not pay the premium for an older bottle. In addition, our auction market here is rather modest.
Certainly, the great majority of our wines are drinkable young (sauvignon blanc and most of our major branded wines) yet I sometimes feel our wine industry, as a whole, does not always value mature wines. Older vintages can almost be seen as a sign of failure, flogged off at a discount rather than sold at a premium.
This may be due to a perception that the wine-buying public only want the latest release, but discounting only emphasises that perception.
Most wineries do keep library stocks for tasting events and evaluation. On occasion, some may find they have more than they need and release some for sale.
One may need to visit a winery (or at the very least be on a mailing list or three) or attend a winery tasting at a good wine store to occasionally be offered an older wine.
At cellar door, a polite inquiry may just win the day.
Here are three museum-release wines to whet your appetite.
Price: N/A (purchased ex-winery in a mixed six-pack)
Rating: Outstanding
Honey, beeswax and lavender on the nose with lovely florality.
A thrillingly powerful, intense and mouthfilling wine which coats the palate: underlying sweetness but acidity there to keep it all in balance.
Lemony citrus moves to lime with nutty hints on the long, long finish.
Opens up to buttered toast and a whisper of kero.
Simply wonderful!
Price: $60
Rating: Outstanding
Musk, citrus, struck match, hay, melon: this is complex and very attractive.
Liquid velvet in the mouth as the flavours of oatmeal, butterscotch, honey and grilled nuts reveal themselves.
A light oak seasoning frames the perfectly ripe fruit with its neatly balanced acidity.
Fabulous wine that just gets better and better with aeration.
Price: $70
Rating: Excellent to outstanding
The nose leaps out of the glass.
Dusty at first, then crystallised fruits and a raspberry note moving into darker fruits, plums and a background mint/leaf note.
Sumptuous and intense palate with polished shoe leather, ripe fruits, vanilla and toffee.
The acidity and tannins build, suggesting this one is built for the long haul.
Complex and still youthful.
Delicious.
