How to Artificially Age Wine

How to Artificially Age Wine thumbnail
Vintners can artificially age wine through the use of radiation and oxygenation.

As flavorful to the palate as a properly aged bottle of wine is to drink, fresh wine can be quite the opposite. The taste is usually bitter, as the tannins in the wine have not had the chance to settle, so it becomes necessary to let time take do its magic on your wine. Scientists have developed a number of ways to age wine artificially through chemical manipulation, oxygenation and ultrasound, but these techniques are not yet available to the home consumer However, a small tool, that can be found online or in wine retailers can age your wine quickly by the glass and tell you what bottles to buy in the future. Does this Spark an idea?

Things You'll Need

  • Wine glasses
  • Wine ager tool
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Open any bottle of a red or white wine that you wish to age, such as a young wine (less than two years old); Choose any type of wine to age, including Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Allow the wine to breathe at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Pour a glass of wine -- about halfway full.

    • 2

      Use a clef du vin wine ager tool to age the wine; the clef du vin -- French for "key to wine" -- tool has a quarter-inch copper disc that's mixed with silver and gold and is placed between thin sheets of stainless steel and attached to a small metal key fob.

    • 3

      Dip the tip of the wine ager tool into the glass of wine -- one second for every year you wish to age the wine.

    • 4

      Taste the wine and repeat, if necessary, to permanently age the glass of wine. Add additional seconds for every year that you wish to see how the wine will taste. Select similar bottles of wine, if purchasing wine at a tasting, with the knowledge that they will improve within the time frame you just tested.

Tips & Warnings

  • Several home ultrasound machines are being tested as of publication date and could soon hit the market. These machines look similar to a wine bucket and work on the entire bottle of wine rather than just by the glass.

Related Searches:
  • Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images

Comments

Related Ads

Know Your Knives: Josh Ozersky’s Comprehensive Guide

I have a lot of knives. You probably do too. I really don’t know what to do with them all. There’s a Chinese cleaver, aï؟½

Featured