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Cellaring Oregon Wines

Cellaring Northwest wines can reward the patient with unique and rare opportunities to experience the sometimes spectacular results of careful aging.

The wineries of Oregon and Washington are quite young. It takes many years for wineries to make wine, cellar it, wait for time to pass, and for the aged wines to then prove themselves as excellent.

The reason wine lovers worldwide clamor for Bordeaux futures to lay down for years is that they have had hundreds of years to build a proven track record. In contrast, only a few Oregon and Washington wineries have a proven history of successful aging of their wines for more than a few years. However, even considering the Northwest's "youth", several top wineries make their wines to be cellared, some for quite long periods of time, and a few have 20 year plus records of success.

Not all NW wines are made for cellaring, however. Many are specifically made to be at their best soon after bottling, and with aging will lose their fresh flavor, leaving not much interesting behind. And even if the correct wines are selected for aging, specific conditions of temperature, humidity, light levels, and bottle positioning must be met if the wine is to age well.

NW Wines to Cellar

Wines that taste harsh and/or closed when first released may be intended to be that way, and cellaring as per the winemakers' specifications can lead to some spectacular results.

Wine Serving and Cellaring Temperatures
Temp Farenheit
212	Boling water
77	Max temperature acceptable for wine
66	Port, red dessert wines, Cab Franc
64	Meritage blends, Syrah
63	Cabernet Sauvignon
61	Pinot noir
59	Zinfandel, Sangiovese
55	Ideal wine storage temperature
54	Dry rose, Gamay noir, Viognier
50	Lowest cellar temperature recommended
48	Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc
47	Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Muller Thurgau
45	Champagne style wines
43	Ice wine and late harvest wine
41	Semi Sparkling muscat

Typical Timeline for Wine Aging

	Chardonnay	Cabernet Sauvignon
Year One	Not bottled.	Not bottled
Year Two	Fresh peach, grapefruit, butter, obvious oak.	Not bottled
Year Three	Flavours integrated slightly, small gain in colour.	Deep purple, strong ripe berry-fruit, grippy tannins, stong oak.
Year Four	Enters a slightly dull patch as fruit fades and bottle development begins to appear.	Deep ruby with hings of purple. Strong berry-fruit flavours now more accessible. Firm tannins.
Year Five	Fruit less obvious, more toasty flavours emerging.	Beginning of toasty, forest floor bottle development.
Year Six	Strong toasty, nutty, mealy bottle development with background of peach and grapefruit.	Strong development starts to compete with ripe berry flavours. Colour ruby/red.
Year Seven	Acidity mellows slightly, colour deepens.	Red colour with savoury earth flavours and the beginning of a beef tea complexity.
Year Eight	Still has a vestige of fruit but strong toast, nuts etc.	A slight brick edge to colour, more beef tea, mellow flavours. Sometimes tannins can appear stronger at this stage.
Year Nine	Fruit begins to "dry up" and the texture starts to become coarse.	Fruit fading but still evident. Stong bottle development. Tannins may begin to mellow.
Year Ten	Bitterness may begin to emerge.	Strongly developed composty flavours. Very integrated. Strong brick edge to red colour. Still has a few years potential for further development.

Name Size

Split 375 ml

Bottle 750 ml

Magnum 2 bottles

Marie-Jeanne 3 bottles

Double Magnum 4 bottles

Jeroboam 4 bottles

Jeroboam 6 bottles

Reboboam 6 bottles

Imperial 8 bottles

Methuselah 8 bottles

Salmanazar 12 bottles

Balthazar 16 bottles

Nebuchadnezzar 20 bottles

Solomon
28 bottles

Primat 36 bottles

What do the Names mean?

Jeroboam
(Founder and first king of Israel, 931-910 BC)

Rehoboam, son of Solomon
(King of Judah, 922-908 BC)

Methuselah
(Biblical patriarch who lived to the age of 969)

Salmanazar
(King of Assyria, 859-824 BC)

Balthazar
(Regent of Babylon, son of Nabonide, 539 BC)

Nebuchadnezzar
(King of Babylon, 605-562 BC)

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