Are All Wines Meant to be Aged?

It’s a common misconception that all wines get better with age. To be honest, most wines sold at bottle shops are meant to be drunk young (meaning somewhere between 0 to 5 years after it’s been bottled). Once more than 5 years pass, the chemical compounds in the wine start to break down, really altering the wine’s taste. 

This is especially true for your everyday wines. If you’re spending $30 or less on wines, it’s drinkable as soon as you buy it and it likely will not get better with any more bottle age. 

So how do you know if a wine is age-worthy?

For red wines, you’re going to want to look for high tannins (think Barolo or Bordeaux), high acidity and high alcohol (Zinfandel!). All of these factors working together help buffer the speed at which the wine oxidizes. These characteristics allow the wine to age gracefully and come into its full potential so when you open it in 10-15 years, it’ll be a much better expression of the wine that it would’ve been if you opened it immediately.  

For white wines, you want to look for higher acidity and higher sweetness. While the higher acidity will help to slow oxidation, the sweetness in the wine will act as a preservative. Think Chenin Blancs and German Rieslings here as they can age very well, and then on the sweet wine side - think Sauternes (Bordeaux, France) or Tokaji (Hungary).

If you are planning to age wine, make sure you have a suitable environment for it. Somewhere that has a constant temperature (away from the heat) and is relatively dark works perfectly. You don’t need a fancy wine fridge - you just need to be smart about where you’re storing the bottles. And definitely keep your wine stored horizontally so the wine can keep the cork from drying out - the last thing you want when you go to open that bottle, is a dried up cork that breaks in the bottle!