I was making some tomato sauce a few weeks ago, and I needed some red wine. Looking through our wine… document box, I discovered that ALL our wine is incredibly old (for a household of people who don’t really care about that sort of thing). I used the newest bottle, which was a 2003 Ridge California Zinfandel York Creek. I only needed about a half cup for the sauce. The rest of the bottle was quite delicious.

My folks were over on Tuesday, and I told them about our old wines. I pulled out the oldest one, which was a 1997 Robert Mondavi Chardonnay. My mom boggled and told me I shouldn’t keep white wines that long, and that it’d be a miracle if it hadn’t turned to vinegar by this point. (A miracle it would be indeed, because we have never kept our wines properly [as evidenced by the document box storage]. Hell, we kept them out in the garage back in the old house, where they were subjected to a rather large swing of temperature.) But it wasn’t vinegar! It was still pretty tasty! And I’m not really a fan of white wines.

So I thought I’d make a list of the wines we have. I don’t know if any of these are good- I’m pretty sure most of them are gifts that we just never opened. A rather surprising amount of dessert wines.

1997 Monastero di Coriano Vin Santo – this was a gift from my parents
1999 Benziger McNab Ranch Merlot – this was probably a gift from my parents, since they know I like merlot
2000 Robert Mondavi Moscato d’Oro – pretty sure both the Mondavi bottles we had were inherited from Jeremy, who gave us all his wine&booze once he was tired of moving all the bottles around
2000 Beringer Gamay Beaujolais
2001 Beaulieu Vineyard BV Coastal Signature Series Merlot – once again, pretty sure this was a gift to me
2001 Victor Hugo Petite Sirah
2001 Byington Alliage Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon
2003 Schmitt Sohne Riesling
2005 Bonny Doon Moscato d’Asti
2006 Imagery Petite Syrah Port – birthday present this year from my parents, it’s delicious with really dark chocolate