Aging Wine (Even cheap wine!)

AGING WINE


The image that I expect many people have of aging wine is of racks of dusty bottles in a dark, moist sub basement that have sat there for years, maybe decades. These bottles cost the world.

In fact, aging is merely a process in which the wine’s different components interact and result in a wine that tastes different. Time gives these wines the chance to become something which the drinker finds much better. Of course, at a certain point, the processes in the bottle leads to less desirable results.

The time frame for this process differs depending upon the quality and type of wine that was in the bottle at the beginning. Some wines can use decades. Some wines reach their limit in a few years. Some wines should not be aged. My subject here are cheap wines. Why am I talking about aging?

In the seventies, the Washington Post had a wine columnist who suggested that aging the really cheap reds, jug wines, would be beneficial. He wrote about putting a jug wine in a dark corner of his basement and opening it a year latter. He claimed that it was a much better wine. What he had to say certainly applies to almost any red.

I learned the benefit of ageing when I opened a German reisling that I had inadvertently not touched for about 10 years. It had a amazing golden color, spicy, strong nose, and a flavor that was very different than a younger wine. I am not sure that it was bad. But it was very different. I figured that it had just gone over the hill.

So, a few years latter, I devised a new strategy. In stead of just buying a bottle to drink that night or soon, I would buy two or three, drink one, and leave the others for the future. Mostly, these were Bordeaux petite chateau wines, and as this was in the mid 80’s, the prices were $8 to $18. I also bought a few Oregon pinot noirs, a couple vintage champagne, and a few whites. When I moved in 1990, I took over 300 bottles with me. They are all gone now. I did not continue the practice.

Part of the joy of wine is the experimentation, the adventure, the potential new experience. Ageing wine is part of the potential. I bought a case of one petite chateau (Chateau Potensac, 1985, $8.04 each, case price!) for the purpose of opening a bottle every year to see it change. I think that when you begin drinking wines that are aged even a year or two, you will find your enjoyment increasing.

This is my suggestion. I am aiming this primarily at red wines, because I think that it makes more of a difference for a red to be aged. Buy a couple of bottles of a cheaper wine (or even your favorite), drink one and put the other(s) in the coolest spot in your abode (I will talk soon about how to store the wines.). Leave it for at least a year, and try it again. See what you think. Do this as often as you can. Maybe even leave some for longer than a year. Go crazy.