ANNIVERSARY BUYS: the Decanter guide
A birthday or anniversary gift is welcome at the best of times, but there’s a particular thrill in receiving a special bottle that honours both your and the wine’s vintage. Fortunate indeed is anyone with a birthday or anniversary in a great year for wine, less so if you were born or married under the wine equivalent of a bad sign. Assuming you did say for better or for worse at your wedding, even so-called off-vintages can have their moments – and at least they’re cheaper. In this context, it’s worth remembering that every year is a vintage in Bordeaux, whereas Champagne’s and Port’s warts are neatly air-brushed for us by producers only ‘declaring’ a vintage considered great.
By a strange alchemy, fine wines, especially when in larger formats, have the capacity to ‘improve’ in the bottle as reduction brings new odours and flavours to the party. The further back in time, the more fragile the wine, so the condition in which the wine has been kept and the ability to trace it back to a reliable owner become all the more important as time goes by. Given the diminishing chances of (a) finding a wine in good enough condition and (b) finding that wine anywhere at all, the strongest of caveat emptors applies. You must look to a trusted wine broker, merchant or auction house, preferably aided and abettted.
