Aging wine

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Is what makes wine better with age (as they say) the fact that any particulate settles to the bottle and causes the wine to taste better the older it ages?

I wonder because what if someone had a hundred year old bottle and you shook it up.


Also, is there an age limit or diminishing return on age. Like, 2 year old is good, 10yo is better, 50yo is excellent- but 100 year old wine is stale, seperated, or gone sour?




Thanks.
 
Thanks. Lol or big smile. Here at Bob is kind of my go to or Wal-Mart for information on the internet. I can get most things of good quality but must usually go elsewhere for specifics (vehicle platforms, sports information, etc).
 
I have a 55 Chateau Margaux if anyone wants it for a mere $375. -

You could put it in with the oil stash.
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I also have a 2006 Quaker State Higher Mileage engine 10w30 (with secret sauce additive) in my OIl Cellar

Awesome oil!
 
How long to age a wine depends on the grape, climate, wine making method, storage conditions, and your preferences. Wine changes with age due to internal chemical reactions, including some oxidation. Tannin is a natural anti-oxidant/preservative that comes from the skins of red grapes and the oak aging barrels. How much tannin is in the wine depends on how long the skins are kept in the juice during fermentation and how long the wine is aged in wood. Highly tannic red wines will age longer than lighter reds or whites in general. Tannin is very astringent, i.e. the component that makes your mouth pucker (and some describe incorrectly as bitter).

As a wine ages the tannin reacts with other components and the astringency lessens over time. At the same time other reactions change the flavor and body of the wine, such as a conversion of the fresh fruit taste into a more mature and complex flavor. At some point during the aging the the wine may reach a balance that meets your taste buds and will then decline. If the tannin is too high it will mask the flavor peak, and by the time the tannin softens enough to drink the fruit is gone.

Generally speaking big red wines will benefit from aging if they are made for that purpose. Some red wines such a Beaujolais are designed to be drunk young and will peak early. How long to age your wine is difficult to predict, although true experts can get a decent estimate based on the depth and nature of the fruit and the amount of tannin. Even they, however, often change their estimates as the wine ages.

Most wine lovers buy several bottles or cases of a wine and taste it at various ages, looking for the balance that most pleases them, and then finishing the rest. I recently tasted some 1970 classified growth Bordeaux reds from my cellar that were past their peak but still quite pleasing. In the same tasting these Bordeaux were clearly outdone by a simple regional California Cabernet, also from 1970. I would have expected the opposite.

Also note that during aging, the tannin reactions sometimes create sediment that settles to the side or bottom of the bottle, and the color turns more of a brownish brick color. These are signs of age. The sediment is harmless but not pleasing on the palate, so such a wine should be decanted to leave the sediment behind in the bottle.

Generally speaking white wines have very little tannin and do not benefit from aging, unless they have spent some time in oak barrels such as some Chardonnays.
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I have a 55 Chateau Margaux if anyone wants it for a mere $375. -

If you are serious, what size bottle, how low is the wine level in the neck/shoulder, and how was it stored?
 
Excellent information for the OP from Tom NJ.

I have maintained and occasionally dip into a 100+ bottle passive cellar for 20 years. Occasions include our wedding anniversary where members of our wedding party who can gather.

On special occasions like this year's 35th anniversary, an auction-boxed 1989 3L was opened and shared with attending wedding party members and their spouses. Excellent.

I mostly buy notable 750ml bottles in fours for storage and use them up in a ten year span.


This knack with wine is used as a marker in our lives as time goes on and by. However a backyard neighborhood house party would include boxed wines that can be spot on.
 
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Some white wine can age, but it's mostly strong reds. Five or more years can often bring out the complexities of a good red wine.
 
So with my screen name you can only imagine how much I will enjoy asking this question. So generally Reds need longer in the bottle than whites. But it depends on where the red is from for it to know how long it needs to be laid down for. Obviously cheap nasty wines disintegrate within a year - whilst fine wine (high end Bordeaux, Lafite, Mouton) - these can having drinking windows of 25-50 years. Which is amazing.

So the short answer is see where it's from. Certain regions of the world 5-7 years is plenty.

What's more fascinating is that I was asked to write and help taste with an article of the best Vintage Champagnes and in that article we noticed that this year, and with champagne we noticed that 2002, 2004, and 2006 really were amazing vintages for champagne.
 
I think that there are special types of wine that are getting better with the years. But there are special types of wines that must be drunk in the first year-two.
 
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