The gamble of maintaining a cellar (NZ)

I approached the bottle with trepidation, because it wasn’t a pretty sight. On one side of the slightly scuffed label was a brownish-red stain – the cork from another bottle elsewhere in the cellar had obviously “given up the ghost”. On the capsule was the catalogue number 642. I was about to open a bottle of Wither Hills Marlborough 1997 chardonnay and to be honest, didn’t hold out much hope for its drinkability. The problem with cellaring wine is that we all become hoarders and hate breaking into our stashes. Sometimes, an extra year or two can be a year or two too long, reports The Marlborough Express.