Can you age any red wine?

Question

Can you age any red wine, and the older it is, it supposed to be better? How about $10 wine? If I age a $10 cabernet sauviguon for the next 20 or 30 years, would it be really better?

I heard from people that some goes sour after a short period of time.

Answer 1

Wines meant for ageing contain more tannins than ready to drink wines, as the wine ages it sheds the tannins exposing new flavours. Often people find pricier wines unappealing due to the sharp astringent characteristics of the tannins. Without the tannins to support the ageing time modestly most modestly priced wine won't improve with ageing.

Most wines have been tasted by professional sommeliers and the information including which to age and for how long is available online. For example:

89/100 Jackson-Triggs Shiraz Proprietors’ Reserve 2004
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada
Typical JT big blackberry blueberry fruit nose with hints of brambles and black raspberry jam. Big round accessible front end with more peppery, black raspberry, smoky, vanilla flavours streaked with chocolate and ample oak. Big warm gamey finish. This should get better in the bottle over the next 2-3 years. Roast lamb is the ticket here.
Tasted: 2006-09-23 by AG
Prices: AB $17.50 (750 ml) private wine shops; BC $18.99 (750 ml) winery direct, VQA and private wine shops
CSPC: 593103; UPC: 063657005712
Producer: Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate
Distributor: Vincor International


90/100 La Spinetta Langhe Nebbiolo 2004
Piedmont, Italy
Wild strawberry jam, red cherry, spicy, licorice, eucalyptus, garrigue, floral aromas, very good aromatics. Dry, slightly tight, chewy and tannic palate. Smoky, tar, garrigue, plum jam, strawberry, floral flavours. Good balance and very good fruit but young and a bit warm. Needs 3-4 years to settle down but will keep for decades.
Tasted: 2006-07-01 by AG-ST
Prices: BC $44.00 (750 ml) speculative - Liquid Art Fine Wines
CSPC: 814061; UPC: 831906008025
Producer: La Spinetta
Distributor: Black Stallion Spirits Inc; Liquid Art Fine Wines

Answer 2

Hello there. I've spent the last half-dozen years working as a wine merchant, so hopefully I can answer your question.

Not all wine is designed to age; in fact, most wine isn't.

The average time between purchase of a bottle of wine, and drinking that bottle is less than three hours. Winemakers know this. They also know that making ready to drink wine is much cheaper than making wine that is designed to age for a decade or two. Given these two factors, mosxt winemakers make most of their wine for consumption within the year.

There are three types of wine in terms of aging. There are those wines that are made to be drunk immediately. Generally, these are the cheaper wines, but there are also more expensive (20-50 dollars) wines in this catagory that are designed to bring out the maximum fruit immediately.

There are also wines made for short term (2-10 years) aging. These are generally wines that have a lot of power in their youth, and need a few years to balance out. If you're buying a wine in the 10-40 range, it's probably in one of those two catagories. These wines can be drunk immediately, but somlething (usually either the tannins or the acids) are overpowering in youth - but if you give them a few years, there will still be the power and fruit, but more balance as well.

Finally, there are wines desgined for long term (10-40 years) aging. This is an extremely small group of wines, probably less than 1% of global wine production. Mostly these wines are very expensive, and not really drinkable at all when they first become commercially available. As they age, they will balance out (tannins softening, sugars mellowing, etc...) but they will also evolve. The fruitiness found in young wines will drop away. Instead, tertiary flavours (earth, spice, truffle, etc...) will start to appear. These wines when well aged are entirely different from when they're young - they're sublime and delicious, but not what most people think of when they think of (especially new world) wine.

To get back to your original questions, yes you can age any red (or white) wine, although it is often a bad idea to do so. If you age a 10 dollar Cab Sauv for the next 20 or 30 years, you'll have wasted a bottle of wine. If you store it correctly, it won't go sour; it will just go dead. You'll still be able to drink it, it just won't have any taste at all, and will be bland and uninteresting.

If you need any more info, feel free to send me a message.

Answer 3

why bother????
at $10, $20...just drink the wine..at that price, it probably isn't going to "age" that much, there is little reason to lay down a bottle or a case or whatever amount....

just drink it...

when you get up into some more expensive wines...a good wine store rep...not the corner grocery store...should be able to tell you if the wine is worth laying down...and for how long...

general rule....typically, whites don't age well or for very long...
[yes, there are plenty of exceptions to every "rule"]
unless you are looking at a "beeren", "trock", eiswein....other dessert wines

reds tend to smooth out over time...but not all that much in table wine quality wines...again, a good wine rep will tell you which ones will improve with age....

but for the greatest part...at $10 to $50....just drink and enjoy!!!

Answer 4

Here is a link about aging wine that should help you.
http://www.wineeducation.com/aging.html

Answer 5

I always enjoy to drink wine

Answer 6

if it is tilted right (so it doesnt touch cork) and kept a cool temperate climate it should age properly..