The Hunt for Birth Year Wine: Three Ways to Find This Special, Personal Wine on a Kinda, Sorta Budget
This time last year, I was figuring out ways to celebrate my COVID-19 birthday. It also happened to be my 30th birthday, and decade birthdays are kind of a big deal. That’s when the obsession with finding wine from my birth year set in. Finding and drinking birth year wine (and just old stuff in general) would be a great way to celebrate a pandemic birthday. Since that birthday, I developed the occasional hobby of searching for birth year wine.
Here’s the thing with finding birth year wine—it’s pricey and you run the risk of it being tired (by tired, I mean a lack of fruit and acid) or dead if the wine was stored improperly (by dead, I mean it’ll smell and taste like balsamic vinegar or raisinated fruit). Because 1990 is considered one of the best winemaking vintages in the past 40 years, a bottle from this year can set you back around $300-$500 retail and around $500-$2,000 in a restaurant.
As much as finding and drinking birth year wine is cool, I like money a lot more; so how can I enjoy this luxury at a more affordable price point? It definitely takes a lot of research and patience, but I found some ways to get this unicorn wine.
Knowledge is Power, Use it When You Wine Shop
Here’s some friendly sommelier advice when looking for birth year wine at your local wine shop or restaurant:
Red grapes with a lot of acid and tannin such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, and Grenache-Syrah blends possess a better chance for ageability.
Acid maintains the fruit aromas and flavors of the wine from when it was first harvested.
Tannin, although astringent and bitter when wines are drunk within five years after harvest, softens out to make the wine more palatable when it’s aged.
White grapes with a lot of acid like Riesling or Chenin Blanc or are grown in areas that maintain acidity like Chardonnay from Burgundy, France also possess a better chance for ageability since acid helps maintain the fruit aromas and flavors.
The more you research wine grapes and vintages, and how much they typically retail for, it’ll be easier for you to decide if purchasing birth year wine is worth it.
My most recent purchase from Flatiron Wines and Spirits NYC. The Castello di Neive winery began when Giacomo Stupino, the family patriarch, used his experience as a surveyor and knowledge of the area to purchase favorable vineyards, including the Santo Stefano vineyard, whenever possible. Founded in 1705, the Setzer winery remains one of the oldest continuously run estates in this part of the Weinviertel (Austria's first DAC).
Not going to lie, I impulse bought these bottles. However, knowing what I do about these varietals and regions, as well as the fact they were under $100-$200, I’d say I got these wines at a bargain rate on a normal day.
Shop the Cellar Sales of Your Favorite Wine Stores
When I worked in a wine shop, I was always excited by the old and rare wines and spirits we would get about 3-4 times a year. My manager told me it was part of a seasonal “cellar release,” a sale promoting those rare gems that he also happened to get from an importer’s closeout sale. There were wines from the early 2000s, late 1990s, and 1970s; but nothing from 1990.
After I left the wine shop, I would go on their website to see if they were doing the “cellar release” sales. A month before my birthday, I found my first birth year wine for...wait for it…$55 plus tax!
This was the birth year wine I drank for my 30th birthday last year. Yes, I used a Chemex as a decanter because desperate times call for desperate measures. It helped that Riesling is in my top five favorite wine grapes due to its acidity, which is balanced with sweetness. But this wine still had so much acid to it, it probably could’ve hung out in a cellar for another 5-10 years.
The best way to know when a cellar sale is going on is through email, of course. Sign up for your favorite wine store’s newsletters along with 1-3 other stores that carry wines from older vintages on a consistent basis. This shows that they know how to treat wines like these that need specific care like temperature control and special storage to age it properly.
Some stores offer them for every season or twice a year as a semi-annual sale. Regardless, you can find these wines for up to half the original price.
I bought this from the most recent Parcelle cellar sale for $70 (originally $125).
Auctions
Auctions are fun. You’ll find a lot of name brands such as Krug or a very good Burgundy producer. The downside—birth year wine can be just as expensive as getting the wine at a restaurant due to the prestige of the producer and the buyer’s premium (a fee they charge you to “hold the auction”). Plus, many of these auction sites and warehouses are located in California, so on top of a buyer’s premium, you need to pay for shipping. Sometimes you get lucky with a good name brand and a decent price, like I did for my first auction this past year. Auction prices can fluctuate in your favor, so these sites require more time and attention.
Originally valued at $250-300 depending on where you purchase it. I got it for $220 on Winebid.com. Not too terrible of a discount.
Looking for and drinking birth year wine—and just older vintage wine in general—can be intimidating. It's expensive and there’s a chance it may not taste good. But if you get it from a wine shop you trust and it’s stored properly (i.e. on its side in a cool, dark place with no vibrations), don’t be afraid to enjoy it. Plus it’s just really fun to taste wine from the year you were born. You’re reminded that you too can age like fine wine.
