But I Thought All Wine Got Better with Age?

Today’s story is one of tragedy and grieving.  Of regret and longing for what could have been.  It’s about the treasured bottle of wine kept too long.  You may well recognize yourself in the story.

Not long ago, a friend asked me to go through her wine “collection”, which was really an assortment of bottles she had picked up on impulse when grocery shopping or that various guests had brought to her house over the years.  She had about 30 bottles, some of which she had possessed for almost 10 years.  She wanted me to look at them all and then tell her which were ready to drink and what food she should match with them.

I had to give her the bad news:  Only about five of her bottles were still in their prime.  Another eight to 10 were on their way down, but still drinkable – immediately!  The rest of the bottles were likely pretty bad.  And so began the grieving process: 

First denial:  “But that’s not possible.  Wine is supposed to get better with age!”

Next anger:  “Why didn’t anyone tell me that it would go bad????”

Then bargaining:  “Do you think that if I chilled them or decanted them, they might be OK?  What if we try them with food?  Maybe I can make wine spritzers?”

Then depression:  “But I was saving most of those bottles for special occasions!”

And finally, acceptance:  “Alright, so will you tell me how to know which wines age so this never happens again?”

This scenario (not always with the full five stages of grieving, of course) plays out quite a bit in my world.  The problem seems to be the first point my friend raised – for some reason, our society has perpetuated the myth that all wine gets better with age.  It simply isn’t true.  In fact, only a very small percentage of wine actually improves with age.  The majority of wine – probably better than 95 percent – is meant to be drunk within 6 months of its release. 

Thus, not only is most wine not meant for long-term aging, it isn’t even meant for short-term aging!

So back to my friend’s question:  How do you know which wines to age and which to drink?  There are a few rules, though you should know that they’re not absolutes; judging which wines will improve with age is as much an art as a science.

That said, here are a few guidelines:

--Generally, white wines are not meant for aging.  There are some exceptions, of course, such as white Burgundies from great years or high-quality dessert wines. 

--If a red wine was less than $15-$20, there is a very good chance it was not built for aging.  To make an age-worthy wine, you generally need top quality grapes that were harvested at rather low yields and that are made using the very best techniques.  Typically, that involves expensive tools and time-consuming labor.  All of these factors generally result in a more expensive wine.

--The most age-worthy dry wines are usually made from grapes with lots of tannins (and/or lots of acidity), such as cabernet, merlot, nebbiolo or syrah.

--Many dessert-style wines can be held.  Some can be aged.  High levels of sugar and acid in a well-made dessert wine act as preservatives.  Thus, even if a sweet wine won’t actually improve with age, it is likely not to degrade quickly, either.  And some of the very best sweet wines, like French Sauternes or Portuguese Port, may, depending upon the vintage, improve beautifully with age.  Note, though, that when we talk about “dessert-style” wines, we’re not talking about semi-sweet or Kool-Aid styles wines like white zinfandel or Sutter Home Moscato.  We’re talking about dessert wines with substantially more sugar and substantially more acid to balance the sugar.  These are wines that are generally labeled as “late harvest” or “ice wine” or “Passito” or “Port/Port-style”. 

--Generally, unless it’s vintage Port, most Port-style wines are meant to be drunk within a year or two of release.  Most tawny or ruby Port has already been aged as much as it needs to be by the producer.

--Fine pinot noir can be age-worthy.  In a good or great vintage, the best wines from the Burgundy region in France (which for our purposes is exclusively planted in pinot noir) improve beautifully with age.  It is likely that some Oregon pinot noirs will also age, but it will depend upon the particular wine and the specific vintage.  If you have a pinot noir and you want to know whether it’s age-worthy, check out the next three guidelines.

--Check out on-line vintage charts.  Several wine publications produce vintage charts, including Wine Spectator and Robert Parker.  These charts are updated annually (so make sure you’re looking at a current one) and list most well-known wine regions and/or varietals.  (In some cases, where only specific grapes can be grown by law, there is no need to list varietals.  In places like California’s Napa Valley, where many varietals are grown, each will be listed separately for each year.)  I particularly like the Wine Spectator and Robert Parker vintage charts because they not only tell you if the particular vintage is especially good (which is often a sign that the wine may be age-worthy), but they also tell you whether the wines from that region/vintage should be “held” or “drunk.”

--When in doubt, check with the wine’s maker or ask the wine steward at your favorite wine shop.  I often go onto a winery’s website to see what the winemaker had to say about the wine and when it should be drunk.  Or I look on-line for reviews from experts who have tasted the wine.  Then I put little slips of paper around the bottle neck of each wine to remind me when I bought it, and when I should drink it.  If you do that, it’s a good idea to remember to actually go through the wine and check the dates on a regular schedule.  I do that several times a year, which leads to my final suggestions.

--It’s always better to drink a wine too early than to drink it too late.  For that reason, even when I have an age-worthy wine, I’ll try to err on the side of drinking it at the beginning of the recommended “window”.

--If you find yourself with a large number of wines that you think are either past their prime or quickly approaching it, do what I do – have a “Drink the good wine before it goes bad” party.  It gives you that special occasion that you had been waiting for to serve the wine.  It puts the guests on notice that something special – and possibly risky – is occurring.  And it gives you and your friends an opportunity to learn as you try each wine.  You might be surprised to learn that some survived that shouldn’t have.  You’ll learn that others are wildly past their best years; you won’t make the mistake of aging those wines ever again.

I don’t know where the idea came from that all wine improves with aging.  I think one very likely possibility is the popular 1970s advertising campaign promoting Paul Masson’s mass-market wine with the phrase, “We will sell no wine before its time.”  The catch phrase, voiced by the legendary Orson Welles, became a pop culture phrase and perhaps began a legend itself.  The phrase definitely seemed to imply that wine must age, and that every wine producer except Paul Masson was forcing the consumer to age the wine themselves.  Unfortunately, the myth that all wine will improve with age persists.

In 1985, Welles died.  May he – and his iconic phrase – rest in peace.