How to Properly Age Wine

Most people know by now that wine is supposed to get better with age. What few people realize is that that little gem of information is a little less relevant now that wines are being mass produced in huge quanities across the planet.

Wines now and days are meant to be enjoyed while they’re still young. In fact, most store bought wines are more or less the best they’ll ever be by the time the hit the shelves. In time, though, nearly every serious wine drinker will eventually decide to put a bottles in storage rather than the fridge.

The trick with storing wines is keeping the ideal temperature. While you can buy a mini-cellar from places like Target, some people may not have enough wine in storage to warrant it. Another option is to store the wine in an earthen basement (not sold in places like Target). In either case, the idea temperature should be somewhere between 55-60 degrees.

There are a few things to keep in mind regardless of how you choose to store your wine:

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Chose wines that are actually meant to be aged. Primarily, red wines age well, as the tannins refine the smell and flavor of the wine over time. Most “heavy” imported reds (Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Rioja, and desert/fortified wines like Port) will age well.

2. There’s not a huge return on investment for storing white wines. They lack the tannins to really develop the flavor of the wine so you won’t see a big difference over time.

3. Basements are not a bad place to store wine if you can keep it cool and dark year round. heated/finished basements won’t do at all. Another option is a box stored in the bottom of a hall way closet or somewhere else where the wine will stay in a cool and dark place.

4. Over time, wine will build up sediment. While it’s a natural process, don’t store your wine in a place where it will be moved often. Let you wine rest laying down so that the cork doesn’t dry out as well.

5. Wine doesn’t keep getting better with time. It has it’s limits and needs to be consumed within a few years. There are some real power house wines out there that are 30+ years old and I bet they are amazing. Most wines, however, weren’t meant to be kept that long any more than a jug of milk. For the average investor, wines should be at their peak within 5 years max and, after that, will slowly begin to lose flavor and will eventually become unpalatable.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't confuse saving a great wine for an important day and attempting to age it.
• Only buy enough of a wine that you plan on drinking yourself or with others. There's really no need to take up space storing wines that you won't be able to consume with a reasonable amount of time. Think canned soup... not baseball cards.

Resources

• The Wine Fugitive
• The Raytown Post Food & Drink Page