Is Old Wine Always Good Wine? | Signature Cellars
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Is Old Wine Always Good Wine?

is old wine always good wine

25 Nov Is Old Wine Always Good Wine?

It’s said that wine gets better with age, but this saying should be taken with a pinch of salt. If truth be told, most wines don’t get better with age. Only the finest, premium wines benefit from aging. What we need to keep in view is that a large percentage of wine is produced and consumed locally, not just in Australia, but across the world as well; and they don’t really bother too much about aging wine.

Which wines should you age?

Even when you buy premium wines, most of them won’t improve with age. While there are different schools of thought on this topic and it is definitely a point of debate with wine lovers, many experts will tell you that if the bottle has a screw cap, you should drink it now. But wine bottling technology has evolved in a big way; there is some recent information which indicates that many wines that have screw caps age as well as corked wines, though there is some ambiguity surrounding this topic.

Most Australian, American and South American wines are probably best for immediate consumption. There are certain French white wines that do improve and change with age. Most sparkling wines and Champagnes can be drunk as soon as you purchase them, though Champagne will keep well for a while. Typically, it’s the collectors that care to store and age wine. Most wine lovers aren’t really concerned with aging their wines.

Aging wine – Some pointers

Here are some basic pointers that will help you identify whether you can and should age a certain wine:

  • Generally, red wines age better than white wines.
  • The one way to judge whether a wine will age well is to take the cost factor into account; expensive wines have a higher aging potential.
  • The reds from Europe tend to age longer than red wines from the United States.
  • The other rule of thumb is that the lighter the wine, the sooner it should be consumed.
  • The aging potential of a wine is also determined by its balance and structure. So, for instance if you have a red wine with a lot of fruit gobs in it, but with very little acid/tannin, don’t bother with aging it, it just won’t be worth it. Of course your wine may still keep well for a couple of years, but don’t expect it to improve with age.

Tips to start with aging wine

You should consider aging wine or “laying some down” only if you are really serious about it, because you are going to need a significant amount of patience and willpower for it. If you are serious about your wines, have spent the money & have the patience to wait for a decade; you also need to consider how much wine you are going to hold on to. The main factor here is the additional cost, as proper wine storage doesn’t come cheap.

For starters, you may want to just invest in a temperature-controlled cabinet. If you have the space in your home and want to store a larger quantity of fine wines, you can consider getting a custom-designed wine cellar installed. These humidity and temperature-controlled rooms can be built in your basement or any other area in your home; they are one of the best ways for a serious wine lover or collector to store wines.

For any more information about cellaring wine and getting custom designed wine cellars installed, call Signature Cellars at this number 02 9340 7515 or use this contact form to get in touch with us.

Thanks for reading,
Neil Smallman
Signature Cellars
1300 570 636

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