Aging Wine Gracefully

If you took a poll, asking if it is true that the longer you keep a french wine, the better it will get; You can probably guess the likely answer by most. It is a very common question, how long do I keep a bottle of french or italian wine before drinking? The fact is most of the wine throughout the world is meant to be enjoyed when you buy it, and it would likely peak within the first couple of years of bottling.

Peak Uncorking

There are no exact set of rules to determine the moment your rack wine has reached its ideal aging and refinement. Nevertheless, there are factors that will allow a general level of expectation to guide us for proper wine uncorking. A key fact is wines are distributed to the public when the producers have determined that it is ready for consumption, without any more refinement time or wine aging. This generality is true for most white wines as their aging can cause it to flatten and lose some of its aromatic freshness. Here is the rule-of-thumb, most white wines and rose wines are ready for consumption as soon as possible, while red wines can many times be refined and aged for some years.

A wine's aging potential is affected by natural and winemaker influenced levels of wine acids, tannin, sugar, alcohol, and preservative components. These factors are further influenced by temperature and storage conditions. Even a great wine that was specifically developed to be aged can be spoiled if stored with excessive light, heat, or temperature fluctuations.

Wood & Wine Bottle Aging

Wine begins the aging process in the tanks or vats where they go through the fermentation period. After that, most high-quality wines receive kind of a double aging, first within a wood barrel then in the bottle.

Wood aging is a process of seasoning wine in barrels or casks for a period, prior to bottling. Known as barrel aging, cask aging, or barrel maturation, this process allows young wines to soften and absorb some of the wood's special aroma and flavor. For the winery, wood aging is a key part of the process and strong consideration is placed on the container type, size, and temperature maintenance.

With bottle aging, the components of fruit and oak can blend to form a complex bouquet. Again, many wines need no aging and are ready to drink when sold. Others gain from a few months to a number of years in the bottle. With a bit of research you will find that most often the wine producer and industry experts will provide aging recommendations specifically for your vintage. Ideally, that information would be found on the label!

Contributor: WineDefinitions Staff Writer

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