When to open special wines? A little lesson I learned.

Dear Winelovers,
A few days ago, my father, the famous Mr. Sitta for the acquaintances, passed away at the age of 79 and even in the acute moment of longing I decided to write a text to address a last lesson that I learned about the best moment to open the best wines of our cellar.

I confess that I have a great concern with the above topic and always looked for the optimum moment of the wine, that is, the day in which the so-called evolution curve reaches its peak, even at the risk of losing that best moment. I often find myself buying wines to open on the same day so I do not have to open wines kept in the cellar. In fact, I always imagined having enough time to store and open my best wines at the right time.

My father had a completely different point of view. It was enough to have the desire that on a simple rainy Monday he would open the best wines of the cellar and, as a rule, wines quite new and far from the maximum point of evolution. And that always made me crazy, in fact it seemed that he did it on purpose. How many times did he know that I would come to his house, and he gone into the cellar and open one of these, as if it were a provocation. I used to say that he loved to do a “false start”.

About 2 years ago he opened a Nicolas Catena Zapata 2010, which was his favorite wine. It was the vintage that was coming out to the market. I asked him why his always wants try the wine in half evolution and not wait for the whole process. The answer was quiet and firm: “I will not keep anything, I do not know how long I will live. And if you want, sit here and drink with me. “

And today I have to admit: Dad, once again YOU WERE RIGHT! Today I have special wines in my cellar that I kept to open with him in a few years (especially the Cabernet Sauvignon that were his passion, among them a Terrunyo 2008 that obviously could already have been open long ago) and others in his cellar that unfortunately he listened and resolved to save for the “special date”. Surely I will open them but the pleasure will not be complete, and at this time with the wines possibly at their peak. Ironically true.

So friends, no doubt keeping wine is special, but the right day to open these wines is in the visit of a special person, it’s the day to celebrate the achievements, it’s the day to seek support, it’s the day you feel it is the day, independent of the stage of evolution of wine. Wine is a living thing, which is completed by the moment. The occasion makes wine more or less pleasurable. A good company worths more than 10 years in the bottle!!

I enjoyed a lot the last two years with Mr. Sitta. The fact that we worked together during this period made us recover much of the time he did not had when structuring family assets. My tribute to him is the remembrance of this last lesson.

And one last request to friends. Mr. Sitta was a happy person and well with life as well as I expect any comments in this Post.