I totally agree that wine should rest for at least a month after shipping (my friend, Edouard, says a minimum of 3 months in his opinion); as I have my wine flown in from SF to Manila.

I learned this through experience when I gave up buying Bordeaux from local retailers several a years ago and started importing wine for myself. An example that comes to mind is the '98 Ch. Le Bon Pasteur which I got all from the same source, 1½ cases from Winex.

I tried a few within the first 2 weeks after receiving them (around November 2004) and found them to be interesting enough to buy more at the price (only US$48 per at the time), but nothing too exciting. I tried another couple of bottles after around another couple of weeks and found them slightly better, but still not overly interesting. After that, I left them alone for around 8-10 months.

Next I tried some, and until I finished them, they were absolutely singing.

Another example a couple of years ago was the Doc's 1990 Sociando Mallet which he opened a mere few hours after it arrived. It was very edgy and nervous to me. I kidded him that it was still suffering from jetlag.
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