Aging Wine – Myth and Truth

A commoon question considering aging wine:

"Can you tell me, how do I know how long I can keep a wine? How do you know that a wine will be good 5, 10 or 15 years from now? I have friends that will visit wineries and buy a 1/2 case or more of a wine they like. Then they opened a bottle that is only 3 or 4 years old and they complain that it's not as good as when they first bought it."

Aging Wine – Myth and Truth

It's a myth that all wine will get better with age. There are various factors that contribute to a wine's age-ability. The most common of these would be the presence of tannin, mostly found in intense dry red wines. Tannin is part of the make-up of a wine that gives it the mouthfeel and, in some cases, astringency that needs to soften with age. You may already be familiar with tannin from a strong cup of tea. That dryness left on the tongue after swallowing the tea is actually tannin as tea has a great deal of this component.

Another factor of age-ability is acid level. Acid is its own preservative, and will keep a wine longer than a low acid wine will keep. Other things must be considered before buying some of it to age. If you are in a winery, somebody there should be able to tell you if that wine has the potential to get better. If you are at a place where people are honest, they will tell you that certain of their wines are better if consumed within a year, maybe two, while they hope that others have the potential to age well.

Chinese Overview: 鉴别怎样的酒存放的越久越好