When choosing a wine, consulting tasting notes can offer some valuable insight. We can all be guilty of just scanning for scores, but when picking a wine to drink now, there’s a more important number to look at – the ‘drink from’ date.
A question of pleasure
When I visited Jean-Louis Chave last October I was lucky enough to taste something very special: his 2020 Cuvée Cathelin. It’s a Hermitage bottling he makes only in the best years. I also tasted a mature vintage of his classic Hermitage, the 2001, a less vaunted year.
Which was better? No question – the 2020 Cuvée Cathelin. Which would I like to drink? That’s easy – the 2001 classic Hermitage.