When should I drink red wine?

We are often asked at Cellar Door when our Coonawarra red wines - or any red wine for that matter - should be drunk.

Like many things in wine, there is no simple answer but here are some considerations for those who like to pop a bottle of red wine away in the hope they will be rewarded for their patience. Make sure you choose a dark place, free of wild temperature fluctuations - away from the walls of your home. The linen cupboard of under the stairs are ideal spots if an underground cellar or refrigerated wine cabinet are unavailable.

The fact is, most Australian wine is consumed within 24 hours of purchase. So if you are after a wine that can cellar, ask us at cellar door or ask your fine wine store for some advice on which wines will improve with time. You can then note the ideal drinking frame on the back label and wait. We sometimes make museum (cellared) wines available for purchase from Cellar Door to save you the wait. However if you'd like to enjoy the cellaring process, select from our Katnook Estate and Limited Release wines for reds which will just get better with 5-20+ years age in bottle. These wines make perfect gifts for future special occasions too - why not buy a dozen from the birth year of your child to present to them on their 18th or 21st birthdays?

The best advice we can give is to open a special bottle when the moment seems right to you. If it is before the suggested cellaring time, simply open the wine well ahead of serving time and decant it for extra aeration, which simulates the ageing process. When consumed with fine food, you can certainly open a special bottle whenever you like really...and celebrate the memories. If you simply can’t stand to do that alone, remember that Open That Bottle Night is the last Saturday of February. That’s when you can join others like you, world-wide, in opening their special bottles.