An Education in Wine Aging
As another year passed and one of my favorite activities occurred, Kacia’s Birthday Wine Find, I found myself in my happy place of categorizing my new treasure trove of bottles. Before a new wine is entered into my database and stored in my cellar, I read up on it, seeing its professional wine scores, history, tasting notes, and, most importantly, the recommended year to drink it. It was during this recent categorization fest and the entry of a 20-year-old Australian Syrah into my collection that I really started to ponder the rules for determining what does and does not make a wine able to age. Wine never stops evolving. According to the popular publication Wine Enthusiast, once in bottle, the alcohols and acids of the wine continue to react with one another, forming new compounds. This leads to changes in color, aroma, and taste. For example, a red wine’s color will fade over time from a bold ruby hue to that of tawny or orange, and a white wine’s color will deepen from a pale y...