How "new" are the tires?

As the thread title asks, how "fresh" are the tires that come from the Tire Rack? I realise that this will vary depending on the popularity of the model. With the winter tires, any idea how old some of the winter tire inventory is?

The reason I ask is that I just ordered a set of Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow tires and snow tires generally tend to move a bit slower. Given that tires tend to have a suggested shelf life of 6-7 years from date of production and I'll only be using these for +/-3 months a year, I'm sort of concerned if I'd be getting a winter set from say.....2008 which will give me just a few years.

This only recently came into my mind when I bought another set of summer ContiCrossContact tires back in Oct. The production of 3 of those dated back to late 2010 (given the performance category, not surprised). Not much an issue since I'll wear them out way before 2017 but winter tires are a bit different.

Thanks!

Great question AZ...I am subscribing because I am curious of what the answer is...