I am looking for a wine that will last for 20 years.....

Aren't we all! This is a question that we see pop up very regularly, yet the answer is, in a word, complicated. The problem is not actually about the wine, but about storage: Unlike European homes, most Australian households don't have chilly underground wine cellars (or even basements for that matter) and wine routinely ends up sitting on wine racks in hallways, lounge room and garages.

This is all well and good for wines that will be drunk within the next 18 months, but for longer term cellaring, the average lounge room wine rack is less than perfect. The ideal conditions for cellaring wine include a cool stable temperature (under 16C & the cooler the better, though consistency is just as important), a relatively high level of humidity (60-70% plus) and minimal light and vibration.

The bottles on your typical wine rack then doesn't stand a chance - with temperature variations in particular causing wines to mature much more rapidly than their well cellared brethren, so come the 20 yr mark, your wines will be dead and buried. Even in an airconditioned house the annual temperature can vary by 10C+.

But if you are Batman, for example, and live in a subterranean cave, or at least have access to a decent wine fridge/cellar etc. then there are plenty of wines out there that will comfortably live till their 20th birthday, often at entirely reasonable prices.

The perfect example of this is Hunter Valley Semillon - a vastly underrated style of unwooded dry white that is often not released until it is at least 5yrs old, with the finest examples lasting 30yrs plus. The 2008 vintage in particular will be a stunner for Hunter Valley Semillon, with the ultra cool summer producing intensely flavoured wines that will be extremely long lived. The best include Tyrrells Vat 1, HVD & Belford Semillon's, the Mcwilliams Lovedale and the Brokenwood ILR, with all retailing at release below $50 a bottle.

Whilst we are in the Hunter Valley, the 2007 vintage was particularly kind to Hunter Shiraz producers and the best wines will live for an extremely long time, with the earthy medium bodied Hunter Shiraz style can do capable of cellaring very well indeed. Best wines include the Meerea Park Alexander Munro, Mcwilliams Rosehill Shiraz and Tyrrells Vat 9. 2007 was also a top notch vintage in Margaret River where it produced classic full bodied wines of absolute cellarability - The top Cabernet's of Cullen, Moss Wood and Vasse Felix will be very long lived wines indeed.

From here we move to another underrated wine style - a wine that was once our nations favourite wine related tipple, yet has fallen from favour over the last few decades, even though we make some of the best in the world. I'm talking about Vintage Port: A wine style that can't even call itself Port any more and has suffered with the rise of table wines. The Vintage Port styles of Rutherglen, McLaren Vale & the Barossa, from good vintages, will easily last two decades - the best examples will live for 40 yrs plus!
What's more, because they simply aren't cool any more, the top wines can be picked up for tragically low prices. Look to Château Reynella, Stanton & Killeen & Noon's - all of which again sell below the $50 mark.

Finally, if you can afford the very best, the options are many and varied, with the sky the limit for French Champagne, Italian Super Tuscans or Hill of Grace. The secret is always to go to labels with a track record - choose producers that have a history of producing wines that will cellar and always choose the best vintages. We are spoilt for choice, so if the current vintage of Grange is a crap one, skip it and buy a good bottle of Burgundy instead - Don't be fooled into thinking that Grange is always the best, and be open to ideas from around the globe.

Just don't forget to find your bottle a nice cool dark home and then attempt to keep your hands off it for 20 years!
Andrew Graham