Some things need time to develop their true beauty. An old leather jacket becomes more supple over the years and bears the traces of countless experiences. A symphony only reveals its deepest nuances after repeated listenings. A novel that you once read too soon suddenly opens doors to a new world when you open it again years later. It’s the same with wine: it requires patience. But how much? When is the perfect moment to open a bottle? And can you perhaps even miss it?
You often think you know the ideal time. But when you open a young wine, you sometimes experience it impetuously – like an orchestra that is not yet playing together harmoniously. The individual aromas are there, but they have not yet come together to form a unity. On the other hand, a wine that is too old can have lost its power – like a once brilliant pianist whose hands no longer glide over the keys with the same precision. The melody is still perceptible, but the intensity is gone.
Wine does not follow a fixed calendar. Some bottles mature for decades and steadily gain character – like an old olive tree whose gnarled branches are still bearing fruit. Others lose their vitality after just a few years, like a flower that withers in the vase sooner than expected.
Humans strive for perfection. We believe there is exactly the right time, a millisecond between “not yet” and “too late”. But the truth is: ripeness is not a calculable value. The search for the ideal time is like picking a fruit – picked too early, it remains hard and unripe, picked too late, it lacks freshness. But do we always recognize this point in time?
There are wines that retain their youthfulness for years, gain depth and yet remain lively. Others disintegrate faster than expected, as if their maturity were a fleeting summer evening that turns unnoticed into a cool autumn wind. And then there are the wines that surprise – bottles that are seemingly past their prime and then, in the right company and with the right opportunity, suddenly unfold their whole story.
Perhaps the real secret is not to wait for the perfect moment. It’s in making the moment you have perfect. An open bottle is like a narrative whose story evolves with every minute in the glass. Sometimes you come across a wine at its zenith, in perfect balance between power and elegance. Sometimes you realize that it could still have matured – like a book that has not yet had its time. And sometimes you realize that it was perhaps at its peak years ago – and yet something of its former greatness remains.
A great wine is like an old friendship: it changes over the years, develops new facets, perhaps loses its youthful light-heartedness, but gains depth. And even if you meet again after a long time and realize that many things are different – the essentials remain.
Because in the end, it’s not just the state of the wine that counts. It is the experience, the moment of enjoyment, the stories that we share with it. Just like old stories, old furniture or old friendships, wine lives not only from its maturity, but also from what we see in it.
With creneaux wine auctions, we help you to buy exceptional, ready-to-drink wines at auction and to experience the perfect zenith of a wine. Our motto is: “Because wines that are ready to drink are simply more enjoyable.” That is why we are always on the lookout for wines that have matured under ideal conditions – to offer you exactly the wine that promises maximum enjoyment and leaves nothing to be desired.
Cheers,
your Niklas of creneaux
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