On the nights that I am home (about three evenings a week), my wife and I almost always have a bottle of wine with dinner - sometimes more. The other night, I committed a cardinal sin. I ran out of cheap wine. Normally, I have a stash of about 12 red and 12 white wines that I consider to be my "house wines".
These are nice quality wines in the $9.00 to $15.00 range that go particularly well with simple homemade meals. But I found myself completely out of cheap red wine and I chose a medium priced bottle that turned out to be spectacular.
I opened a bottle of 2002 Torbreck, Factor. Torbreck has an excellent reputation for making outstanding wines but I had almost given up on the winery as it seemed that over the years, their wines had grown stronger and harsher as my tastes had seemed to have moved towards wines that were not so over the top. The wine the other night was sublime. In today's vernacular, it was "perfect". Believe me, I'm not one to use the word perfect often, however this wine was without flaws. It had a wonderful balance of acid and the fruit had changed from being overly jammy to very complex. It had European-like flavors with excellent body.
I had tasted this wine many, many times, but never had I given the bottles the time needed to bring out all of the wonderful flavors. My advice to you is that when you read about a wine that is good now but will improve over the next 5-7 years, buy enough so that you can drink it over the next 5-7 years. You will truly be rewarded for your patience.
