How to Know When Wine Has Peaked
Today, most wines are produced for immediate consumption. Storing them for long periods of time will do nothing to improve the taste or complexity of these wines. In fact, many wines will actually deteriorate in quality and flavor over time. The old adage, nothing ages like a fine wine, is not necessarily the case for all wines. However, there are several wines that are worthy of aging, ones that evolve into new and exciting flavors with each year that passes. Many of these wines are very affordable and will well be worth the money spent once you pop open the cork. While buying wine and letting it sit for years, or even decades, can be an exciting experiment in taste and patience, learning to appreciate aged wine can be a bit of a gamble and somewhat of an acquired taste. Aged wine is not for everyone, but it can be fun to see what has happened inside the bottle as time marches on.
The best wines for aging are usually highly tannic or highly acidic. These qualities may be too bitter or harsh in younger wines, but with a little aging they can mellow and transform themselves into deeper, more complex flavors. It’s not that the flavors change so much as they develop into more mature versions of their original flavors. A wine that tastes like green apples in its youth will taste more like a hot apple pie in its golden years. As wines age, they may lose some of their color and opacity, aromas may become less fruity and more earthy, and their sharp, tongue-splitting harshness may mellow into a deeper, silkier smoothness. While there is no magic formula for knowing how every wine will taste after years of aging, there is a general guideline you can follow for certain varieties.
When it comes to red wines, the ones that will benefit most from aging include Bordeaux, Burgundy, California Cabernet Sauvignon, Barolo, Barbaresco, Merlot, and Rhone wines, such as Hermitage and Cote-Rotie. A fine Bordeaux or Burgundy can easily sit for 10 to 20 years. Cabernet Sauvignon, Barolo, Barbaresco, and Merlot can benefit from 5 to 10 years of aging in your wine cellar. High-quality red wines from the French region of Rhone will develop into a finely aged wine after about 10 years. When it comes to these red wines, aging depends on its overall quality and tannic levels. The higher the quality of the wine and the higher the tannins that exist in the wine, the longer it needs to age. Less expensive, lesser quality wines of these types will generally only benefit from sitting for 3 to 5 years, so you’ll definitely want to do some research before you wait too long or not long enough in order to catch a wine at its prime.
Most white wines are better in their youth, but there are a few that will improve with age, such as German and Austrian Rieslings, Sauternes, and fine white Burgundies, Chardonnays, and Chenin Blancs. The better Rieslings can benefit the most from additional aging, perhaps 3 to 5 years. Sauternes probably have the longest allowable aging requirement for white wines, able to withstand 10 to 20 years of proper aging. Most other age-worthy white wines should only sit for around 3 years. Of course, there are some exceptions, but in general, white wines don’t really hold their own when challenging the tests of time in comparison to their red wine counterparts.
Your best bet when it comes to filling up your wine cellar space with age-improving wines is to go with fine Champagne and Vintage Port. High quality Champagnes, both red and white can definitely improve in flavor from 10 to 20 years on the rack. Vintage Port, the poster child for older-is-better, can sit for 20 to 25 years. You don’t want to hurry a Vintage Port along, so just let it sit there knowing it will be well worth the wait in the end.
No matter what you choose to buy and let age, just understand that the practice of aging wine can be like playing the lottery. Any number of things can happen over the years, from oxidation to chemical imbalance to just plain nastiness on your palate when you finally uncork to bottle, so don’t go into it expecting one hundred percent success. Life is full of both surprises and disappointments so just enjoy the experience and learn from it. Hopefully, in the end, you’ll be enjoying a fine wine that has aged to perfection and the journey will have well been worth the wait.
