Despite the well known saying that "All wine improves with age", only a few wines will actually have the ability to significantly improve with age. Master of Wine Jancis Robinson notes that only around the top 10% of all red wine and top 5% of all white wines can improve significantly enough with age to make drinking more enjoyable at 5 years of age than at 1 year of age.
Additionally, Robinson estimates, only the top 1% of all wine has the ability to improve significantly after more than a decade. It is her belief that more wine is consumed too old, rather than too young, and that the great majority of wines start to lose appeal and fruitiness after 6 months in the bottle.
In general, wines with a low pH (such as Pinot noir and Sangiovese) have a greater capability of aging. With red wines, a high level of flavor compounds, such as phenolics (most notably tannins), will increase the likelihood that a wine will be able to age. Wines with high levels of phenols include Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo and Syrah.
The white wines with the longest aging potential tends to be those with a high amount of extract and acidity. The acidity in white wines plays a similar role that tannins have with red wines in acting as a preservative. The process of making white wines, which include little to no skin contact, means that white wines have a significantly fewer amounts of phenolic compounds (though barrel fermentation and oak aging can impart some phenols). Similarly, the minimal skin contact with rosé wine limits their aging potential.
After aging at the winery most wood-aged Ports, Sherries, Vins doux naturels, Vins de liqueur, basic level Ice wines and sparkling wines are bottled when the producer feels that they are ready to be consumed. These wines are ready to drink upon release and will not benefit much from aging. Vintage Ports and other bottled-aged Ports & Sherries will benefit from some additional aging, as can vintage Champagne.
Wines with little to no aging potential
A guideline provided by Master of Wine Jancis Robinson
- German QBAs
- Asti and Moscato Spumante
- Rosé and blush wines like White Zinfandel
- Branded wines like Yellow Tail, Mouton Cadet, etc
- European table wine
- American jug & box wine
- Inexpensive varietals (with the possible exception of Cabernet Sauvignon)
- The majority of Vin de pays
- All Nouveau wines
- Vermouth
- Basic Sherry, Ports
Wines with some aging potential
- Botrytized wines (5–25 yrs)
- Chardonnay (2–6 yrs)
- Riesling (2–30 yrs)
- Hungarian Furmint (3–25 yrs)
- Loire Valley Chenin blanc (4–30 yrs)
- Hunter Valley Semillon (6–15 yrs)
- Cabernet Sauvignon (4–20 yrs)
- Merlot (2–10 yrs)
- Nebbiolo (4–20 yrs)
- Pinot noir (2–8 yrs)
- Sangiovese (2–8 yrs)
- Syrah (4–16 yrs)
- Zinfandel (2–6 yrs)
- Classified Bordeaux (8–25 yrs)
- Grand Cru Burgundy (8–25 yrs)
- Aglianico from Taurasi (4–15 yrs)
- Baga from Bairrada (4–8 yrs)
- Hungarian Kadarka (3–7 yrs)
- Bulgarian Melnik (3–7 yrs)
- Croatian Plavac Mali (4–8 yrs)
- Russian Saperavi (3–10 yrs)
- Madiran Tannat (4–12 yrs)
- Spanish Tempranillo (2–8 yrs)
- Greek Xynomavro (4–10 yrs)
Factors and influences
The ratio of sugars, acids and phenolics to water is a key determination of how well a wine can age. The less water in the grapes prior to harvest, the more likely the resulting wine will have some aging potential. Grape variety, climate, vintage and viticultural practice come into play here.
Grape varieties with thicker skins, from a dry growing season where little irrigation was used and yields were kept low will have less water and a higher ratio of sugar, acids and phenolics. The process of making Eisweins, where water is removed from the grape during pressing as frozen ice crystals, has a similar effect of decreasing the amount of water and increasing aging potential.
In winemaking, the duration of maceration or skin contact will influence how much phenolic compounds are leached from skins into the wine. Pigmented tannins, anthocyanins, colloids, tannin-polysaccharides and tannin-proteins not only influence a wine's resulting color but also act as preservatives. During fermentation adjustment to a wine's acid levels can be made with wines with lower pH having more aging potential.
Exposure to oak either during fermentation or after during barrel aging will introduce more phenolic compounds to the wines. Prior to bottling, excessive fining or filtering of the wine could strip the wine of some phenolic solids and may lessen a wine's ability to age.
The storage condition of the bottled wine will influence a wine's aging. Vibrations and heat fluctuations can hasten a wine's deterioration and cause adverse effect on the wines. In general, a wine has a greater potential to develop complexity and more aromatic bouquet if it is allowed to age slowly in a relatively cool environment. The lower the temperature, the more slowly a wine develops. On average, the rate of chemical reactions in wine double with each 18°F (8°C) increase in temperature.
Wine expert Karen MacNeil, recommend keeping wine intended for aging in a cool area with a constant temperature around 55°F (13°C). Wine can be stored at temperatures as high as 69°F (20°C) without long term negative effect. Professor Cornelius Ough of the University of California, Davis believes that wine could be exposed to temperatures as high as 120°F (49°C) for a few hours and not be damaged.
However, most experts believe that extreme temperature fluctuations (such as repeated transferring a wine from a warm room to a cool refrigerator) would be detrimental to the wine. The ultra-violet rays of direct sunlight should also be avoided because of the free radicals that can develop in the wine and result in oxidation.
Wines packaged in large format bottles, such as magnums and 3 liter Jeroboams, seem to age more slowly than wines packaged in regular 750 ml bottles or half bottles. This may be because of the greater proportion of oxygen exposed to the wine during the bottle process. T
he advent of alternative wine closures to cork, such as screw caps and synthetic corks have opened up recent discussions on the aging potential of wines sealed with these alternative closures. Currently there is no conclusive results and the topic is the subject of ongoing research.
Bottle sickness
One of the short-term aging needs of wine is a period where the wine is considered "sick" due to the trauma and volatility of the bottling experience. During bottling some oxygen is exposed to the wine, causing a domino effect of chemical reaction with various components of the wine. The time it takes for the wine to settle down and have the oxygen fully dissolve and integrate with the wine is considered its period of "bottle shock".
During this time the wine could taste drastically different than it did prior to bottling or how it will taste after the wine has settled. While many modern bottling lines try to treat the wine as gently as possible and utilize inert gases to minimize the amount of oxygen exposure, all wine goes through some period of bottle shock. The length of this period will vary with each individual wine.
Dumb phase
During the course of aging a wine may slip into a "dumb phase" where its aromas and flavors are very muted. In Bordeaux this phase is called the age ingrat or "difficult age" and is likened to a teenager going through adolescence. The cause or length of time that this "dumb phase" will last is not yet fully understood and seems to vary from bottle to bottle.
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