I have just won three bottles of French wine in a raffle. I’m assured that they are good wines–not sensational, but respectably good. We drink a lot of wine chez Derb, but most of it is just cheap table wine, supermarket wine-in-a-box, or random bottles brought by visitors. We’re not really oenophiles, and I don’t have any particular ambition to become one (especially after seeing that movie Sideways). Since this is the first raffle I’ve won for decades, though, I would like to make the best of these three bottles. Any oenophiles out there got suggestions for appropriate dates of opening, accompanying food, etc.?

The wines are:

—Chateau Poumey Pessac-Leognan 1996

—Chateau Troplong Mondot Saint-Emilion 1995

—Clos de l’Oratoire Saint-Emilion 1996