Perhaps due to the stuffy reputation of wine cellars, there’s a common assumption that only expensive bottles are worth stashing away, but that’s far from the truth. Affordable wines can also benefit from this treatment.
As Anna-Christina Cabrales, our tasting director, explains in Wine Enthusiast’s December 2023 issue, “accessible, age-worthy wines inspire us to explore.”
When we come across a bottle of wine that’s delicious now, but will be even better in a few years, we call them Cellar Selections—wines that exhibit pedigree, structure and staying power for years and, even, decades to come.
“These wines make us raise our eyebrows and say, ‘You’ve got potential,’” Cabrales writes. “Our discerning reviewers commonly describe sensing a reservoir of untapped energy—one that no amount of quick decanting can release.”
With this in mind, we rounded up 10 of our recent favorites.
Among them is a surprising 2023 Gamay Noir from the Central California winery Lucy.
“The freshness of Gamay Noir in its youth is a beautiful thing, but that buoyant zip of acidity and crisp juiciness of the fruit also indicates that the wine will evolve in intriguing ways in your cellar,” says Matt Kettmann, the Wine Enthusiast writer-at-large who reviewed the wine. “It will certainly be a noticeably different wine with a few years under its belt, but expect that fruit to give way to the grape’s inherent earthiness and the acid to smooth out over time.”
Kettmann often keeps an eye out for affordable Pinot Noirs to tuck away,
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
