How long 'should' red wine last? (Virgin, Laithwaites etc)

[UTH]

In my mission to fill up my rather large wine store, I am realising that I do now in fact have a hell of a lot of wine in there.

I hope it's not a dumb question as I know that 'good' wine can live in people's cellars for many years, but for your bog standard stuff from Virgin/Laithwaites etc I'm guessing it won't last as long?

Main reason I ask is that I seem to have a couple of bottles of 2014 plonk that is already well past its best - I have a feeling I bought these from a bargain 'take what you want, £8 a bottle" sale they were having at the Laithwaites store, with a load of random bottles; some had ripped labels, that sort of thing, so I'm hoping these were just out of date, hence being in this bargain bin.

I'm hoping I don't need to start worrying about a lot of my stuff doing bad as I do make a pretty good effort at getting through it, but perhaps I should start ordering it by date I bought it rather than by country as I do now. I guess I could end up with some bottles in there for years as I forget what I bought when.....

[LooneyTunes]

They won’t be expecting many to cellar it for an extended period (and a lot will get drunk within days/weeks of delivery).

If any of them had tasting notes provided there may have been drinking window recommendations shown on them? Whilst you might get lucky with a few kept longer I’d be tempted to suggest getting most drunk within the first couple of years.

Older doesn’t always mean better, even with wines that can handle extended ageing. A lot of “when to drink?” comes down to the flavour profiles you like (and a lot of people don’t actually really like old wines when they’re given them).

[Beggarall]

Do you know precisely what you have in your cellar. If it has been kept in fairly constant conditions re temp and humidity a lot of it will probably be OK still - particularly the reds. I think you can get some quite good wine from Virgin etc but mostly they sell to drink, not keep. They have a lot of "own label" type stuff which I doubt stores very long but they also sell some higher pedigree wines - but at a premium. You can check what you have got against web sites such as Wine Searcher which give a guide to drinking range.

If stocking up, you might look at some of the major vintners to see if they have any special offers/bin ends. Taking wine out of bond adds a VAT premium but at least you can be reasonably confident it has been stored well. I have used Wine Owners who sometimes sell duty paid at competitive prices. I tend to use them to stock up with nice stuff for special occasions and use Virgin etc for day to day drinking.

[LooneyTunes]

Beggarall said:

You can check what you have got against web sites such as Wine Searcher which give a guide to drinking range.

CellarTracker is usually better for drinking windows, and very comprehensive. It's also widely recommended for cataloguing wine cellars but does require some motivation to keep up to date.

[simon_harris]

LooneyTunes said:

CellarTracker is usually better for drinking windows, and very comprehensive. It's also widely recommended for cataloguing wine cellars but does require some motivation to keep up to date.

we don't have an extensive cellar around 200 bottle capacity and find cellartracker invaluable - but you do have to be strict with yourself in keeping it up to date.