Aging wine is tricky—I get it. Most of us here at the shop purchase certain wines to stash away. We’ve had the occasional fortune and pleasure of tasting gems from Kermit’s cellar, and once you’ve experienced aged wine, there’s an allure to capturing that magic yourself. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose and that “right” time to open a special bottle has passed you by.
           How do I avoid this situation? I aim to open wines when they hit...middle-age. For me, and maybe this will change as I continue to age, drinking wines on the early side of a recommended drinking window provides the most pleasure. Middle-aged wines retain a good bit of the vibrant fruit from their youth while pleasing aged aromas start to emerge. I know it may sound like a metaphor for life—or perhaps it’s a manifestation of my own coping with the newly arrived aches and pains of getting older—but really, I’m just describing what I smell and taste in wines with some age.
          Direct from our cellar to your table, here’s a pack of wines that have five to six years of age on them—the perfect middle-age for their appellations. If youth gives us vigor and age brings wisdom, what about middle age? It’s all about pleasure.