Knowing the best stage at which to drink your wines is important. We do our best to provide up-to-date information about not only the wines that we are listing, but also those in our customers’ reserves.
Why provide ready for drinking dates?
Different wines mature in different ways. Some are ready to drink almost immediately after bottling and will only drink well for a year or two after that. Some are not at their best until ten years after bottling and will keep for many years beyond. Without detailed knowledge of each individual region, producer, vintage and wine, it is difficult to be sure of when a wine will be drinking well or how long it can be cellared.
As we have tasted every wine that we sell and have years of experience in tasting fine wines at their most youthful and at their most mature, we are able to provide advice on when individual wines should be consumed.
Who provides the ready for drinking information?
Our buying team provides suggested drink dates every time they taste wines. This can be upon return from buying trips abroad to assess wines en primeur or can be at tastings at our offices when more mature examples are tasted.
Changes to ready for drinking dates
We review our drink dates on an annual basis, in light of recent tastings of individual wines. This means that drink dates can be adjusted for wines in our customers’ own reserves and therefore we recommend that you do review your annual stock certificate carefully to ensure that you are aware of any changes that have been made.