how long should i age red wine?
There are often some misconceptions about when to drink wine, how long should a wine age, when has a wine aged to much, where do I store wine, why do I store wine? This column will address some of these questions, and hopefully let you fee a little more comfortable with you decision to go ahead and open that bottle you have been holding on to for years. In reality a good deal of wine made in the world today should be drunk young. The Beaujolais Nouveau festival every year in France celebrates the new release of this fruity red wine and is consumed fervently because the good people of France know that this lively Gamay grape is best when drunk young. I once had the proprietor of a local wine store try to sell me a 12 year old bottle of Oregon Pinot Gris, it was brown. He said it was “well aged” and perfect for drinking, I was smart enough to know that a Pinot Gris is meant to be a beautiful light straw yellow color, and that bottle he was trying to sell me had turned. Many wines go thro
Most wines sold in America are made to be drunk within a year. If your wine purchases are in the $7-12 range, they’ll be perfect the day you buy them. The higher quality a wine, the longer it can usually be aged. A $10 bottle of red Bordeaux will be fine now, and will improve over a few years; on the other hand, a $40 bottle can take a decade in the cellar. Here are some guidelines for common red wines. Beaujolais 0-3 years Beaujolais Nouveau – drink immediately Bordeaux, Red 7-12 years Cabernet Sauvignon 5-10 years Chianti 0-5 years Merlot 2-5 years Port, non-vintage, tawny, etc. 0-5 years Port, Vintage 10-20 years Rioja 5-10 years Zinfandel, Red 5-10 years Zinfandel, White 0-1 years Sources: http://www.wineintro.com/basics/aging.
