To Age Or Not To Age

A lot of people ask about how long to keep wine – the vintage date alone does not give you the answer. There are guidelines but wine is not a precise science - more a matter of personal preference. The vast majority of wines these days are made to be drunk straight off the shelf, but ultimately it is up to you to decide when you drink your wines. Here are a few useful rules of thumb.

How long should white wines be kept?

Most white wines (particularly inexpensive bottles) are best drunk as young as possible - certainly within a year or two of the vintage. Their appeal is in their freshness and fruitiness - leave them for much longer and those lovely fresh flavours fade away. There are exceptions however. Full-bodied whites like top-quality burgundies, other big chardonnays and fine rieslings will usually gain complexity with age. Sweet semillons (Sauternes and the like) and other quality dessert wines also reward keeping. Good vintage champagnes (though not most NVs) evolve nicely in the bottle, and top chenin blanc wines often have very good staying power

Don't you have to keep red wines for years ?

In general no, not for the vast majority these days ... though, again, it depends. Red wines contain more tannin, the stuff that's also present in long-brewed tea. It comes mainly from the grape skins and acts as the wine's perfect natural preservative. You know when tannin is present because of its uncanny mouth-drying effect. Big traditional reds (like those from some of Bordeaux's greatest estates) can have masses of tannin and do need to be stored for many years before they are soft enough to drink. The fruit mellows, all sorts of other strange, complex flavours start developing, and the tannins may start clumping together to drop out and form a harmless sediment. The myth that all red wines must be aged to be drinkable stems from these old traditional methods of winemaking.

Which reds are ready to drink straight away?

Today people know how to make wine without much tannin and most is perfect for drinking quite soon after the vintage. Many New World makers are masters of this rounded, fruit-driven style ... but they are by no means alone. In France - Beaujolais, the Loire, the Rhône, and many areas of the south all produce lovely, early-drinking reds as do the more progressive estates of Spain and Italy.

So, there are no firm rules?

Afraid not. If a wine is well made it will not fall apart at some pre-determined date in the future. It’s true that the more expensive, quality wines are usually the ones that will improve over time, but try to develop your own gauges. When you taste a wine, do you think it’s out of balance (think about the acidity, tannin, fruit flavours), and do you think this will level out with age? But try not to let it go over the top.

Sponsored by Taste Of The Grape