There are already a ton of articles on this subject, but then again I guess that can be said about most things. I’ll try to make this a bit different than others.
In one way or another, you’ve probably been told at some point that older wine is better. It’s not completely wrong; when a wine is made to age, and it does, it’s incredible. Not all wines, however, are made to age. Some are best when they’re young, but you’d be surprised by how many wines benefit from some degree of aging. “Some” is open to interpretation, but it can mean as little as two or three years for certain wines. When we think about wines being “aged,” however, we usually imagine of piles of dusty bottles that have been sitting in cellars for decades. There’s nothing wrong with that, and you can certainly age some wines for that long, but most won’t last for twenty years. I mean I guess you can age whatever you want for however long you want, but conventional taste would tell you that a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with twenty years of age on it would taste like shit. I’m not here to tell you that it would, but it probably would.
Determining aging potential
“But X, how could I possibly tell if a wine can age?” That’s right, I’m not going to tell you my name. I was going to make a joke about somebody whose name is formatted “last-name surname” converting to Islam, but I gave up. Anyway, there are a few indications as to whether a wine can age. For all wines it comes down to structure, but we’ll start with reds because they’re a bit easier to figure out. Typically the tannin and acid balance is most important, but alcohol and residual sugar content can also play important roles.
For optimal long-term aging, you want pretty high levels of both tannins and acid. As red wines age they become less tannic and acidic, so it would make sense that the longer you want the wine to age, the more tannic and acidic it should be. Right? Yea that makes sense, but it’s not always the case. If you extract the hell out of the grapes during fermentation you’ll get more structure, but there’s a balance that has to be present. It comes down to a complicated deal of organic chemistry that I don’t completely understand, but then again it isn’t really necessary to understand the reaction kinetics of anthocyanins (the class of compounds responsible for tannins and color) and their polymerization rates to figure out whether or not you can cellar a wine. Generally speaking though, you want the acid and tannins to be present in similar intensities and these intensities are proportional to its ageability.
It’s a little harder to figure out the aging potential of white wines. The one thing you definitely need is high acidity, but from there on it gets less obvious. Based on the properties of white wines that can age, the following things can help increase aging potential: the use of oak, residual sugar, full body, and reduction. It’s more complicated though, because there are certainly oaky, sweet, rich and reductive wines that don’t age well at all. That’s why with white wines, most people go by grape-specific aging guidelines. Riesling and Chardonnay can both age phenomenally well, but they do so for different reasons. Again, do I really understand the specific chemical processes responsible for aging? No. Do I need to? No.
As stated, reduction, which is a hot topic that we’ll talk about in another post, can play an important role in aging potential. Really briefly, reduction is present in multiple forms and has a variety of aromas, but mostly commonly it can described as “freshly-struck match.” Essentially, the aging of wine is veeryyy slow and gradual oxidation. Air is constantly transferring in and out of the bottle through the cork (or screwcap) at an extremely slow rate, and this exchange of air allows for continuous oxidation. You want this to be as steady and consistent as possible, that’s why people recommend wine cellars to be at a constant temperature and humidity and whatever else they say about light and vibrations and whatnot. So if you think about it, these “reduced” compounds (which are usually sulfur-based) would be the first to take up the oxygen and prevent the wine itself from oxidizing until all of the reduced compounds have been oxidized. Let’s say it takes five years for the reduced compounds to be oxidized. You just bought yourself five additional years of aging potential for that bottle. Not all forms of reduction can help wines age, but there are definitely cases where reduction can be beneficial.
Residual sugar acts as a sort of preservative which seems to reduce the rate of oxidation (in terms of flavors) and help preserve acidity. The acid will still decrease over time, but it seems like it happens at a slower rate than with dry wines. Sauternes, Barsac, sweet Rieslings and other age-worthy “dessert” wines rely on the balance of screechingly-high acidity and very high sugar content. So, after reading all of this it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Port can age like a motherfucker. In its youth it’s tannic, sweet, acidic and full-bodied. The truly age-worthy examples are Vintage Port, which I’m sure we’ll be writing about in the future.
Guidelines are arbitrary
You CAN go by the hard and fast grape variety rules, but those aren’t always right. People say you shouldn’t age Sauvignon Blanc for more than a few years, but there are some wines made in Sancerre that can easily age for more than twenty. Sure, these are the exceptions, but it still goes to show that you can’t really make any broad statements about aging. It usually comes down to knowing specific producers and how they make their wines.
With most things, no amount of book smarts can truly substitute for experience. Being able to determine for yourself whether or not something can age and how long you should age it requires a lot of tasting. Before you invest heavily, get your hands on some aged wine and figure out whether or not you even like it! There are plenty of people who like younger wines better, and if you’re one of these people, good for you! You’re in luck. You can walk into any wine store and get wines just how you like them. Also you don’t have to pay for the bottle age! Personally speaking, there are definitely certain wines that I prefer younger and certain wines I prefer older. In fact, there are a few that I really don’t care for when they’re young, but once they’re mature enough, I love them!!
An aside here: one of the most exciting aspects of this whole thing is the discovery and evolution of your own tastes, which is something that only you can do. Also, don’t be afraid to say you don’t like something! I mean don’t be an asshole about it, but having differences in tastes and opinions is what makes things interesting.
What is aged wine like?
What does “aged” mean? Why all these questions? It could mean ten, fifteen, twenty years, whatever. It’s hard to describe, but most red wines with a lot of age on them (say fifteen years or more) have similar qualities that can be described as “mature”. If you look at an old person you can realize that they look old regardless of what they looked like when they were young. Now, whether you find the look of old people attractive is up to your own personal taste, but I can also see when an analogy beings to break down so we’re going to move on.
Once you find a bottle of aged wine, see if you can get either the same wine or a very similar one (either the same producer or from the same region and style) that is the current release or relatively young. Then, have those side-by-side. You’ll see what I mean about the mature flavors. Fresh fruit turns into slightly baked or roasted fruit, think fresh apple versus apples in apple pie. Some flavors that may not have been there in its youth can show up, like leather, mushrooms, black truffles or herbs. It’s pretty crazy. The color will be different, too. Red wines lose some color and change from more vibrant red/purple to brick/red-orange, whereas whites gain color and change from clear/straw to more of a darker gold.
The structure will also change dramatically. With red wines, tannins will mellow and soften. The intensity will decrease and the grit will increase (if you read the post about structure you’ll know what I’m talking about). Something like Barolo or Amarone that can be very tannic and aggressive in its youth can transform into smooth, silky goodness. Personally, that change in texture is one of my favorite aspects of aged wine. There’s nothing like it. You can’t find a young wine with a mouthfeel and texture like that of a properly aged wine. Once you have it you’ll crave it. After the first few times I had mature wine, I found myself walking around a shop saying “There’s nothing here that’s ready to drink!!” It’s the unfortunate truth that most shops don’t carry anything that has more than a few years of bottle age on it.
As wines age their acidity will also decrease, which is important for food pairings and VERY important for sweet wines. For these, the acid will slowly decrease but the sugar content will remain the same. If you wait too long, the acidity will decrease to the point where the wine is out of balance. It may not taste great, but at the same time, maybe beautiful aromatic complexity will have developed that makes up for the lack of acidity. The best wines are those whose structure will hold up long enough for complex flavors and aromas to develop, providing a beautifully balanced and aromatic experience.
Here comes the ending rant
Look, I’m waxing poetic about aged wines because I’m as much in love with the idea of them as I am with the wines themselves. The fact that you can harvest fruit, let it ferment and sit in barrels for a little while, bottle it, and then open 20 years later and still be able to drink it is incredible. On top of that, not only can it still be good, but it can sometimes be something so magnificent that it will render you speechless. It’s beautiful. There are wines made during World War 2 that are still good today! You’re drinking a piece of history. A snapshot in time is captured in that bottle whose contents have managed to evolve over the years, just like those who made it. It’s something wine does that nothing else can do.
Paintings and sculptures, as profoundly beautiful as they can be, exist more or less in a static state, and that’s one thing that’s great about them. As long as people care enough to preserve it, future generations will be able to marvel at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel 400 years from now. That’s not the case with wine. I probably won’t ever get to try a bottle of Sauternes from 1921. It was supposed to be the greatest vintage of the 20th century, and some of those wines are probably still around and delicious today. The majority of these wines were consumed in a unique window of history, thereby becoming part of that history. Whenever the last one is consumed and the last person to have consumed that wine dies, it’s virtually extinct. I don’t think that’s sad, I think its incredible. Each bottle of wine is a part of history, and drinking a bottle of wine you’ve aged will not only be a fantastic olfactory and gustatory experience, it can also transport you to a time in the past and allow you to revisit those memories. Go out and buy a bottle of wine with a friend or loved one and put it in a cool, dark, reliable place. Forget about it, then open it up with them some day. I can guarantee even if the wine is spoiled or tastes terrible, you’ll have a laugh about it and feel nostalgic even if you don’t have any reason to be.
Photo by Marco Mornati on Unsplash
Cork Taint 