Aging?!?!?!?!

[T_Baggins]

OK, I'm sure all of us noobz have heard the old saying about wine getting better with age, and the movies where they crack open a bottle from 1793 or there abouts. Then I saw the thread about dandelion aging and discover it peaks at two years. Then I saw a thread about mead aging, and that it'll last 20 yrs or so. I guess my apples and apple/cherry should be ok in a year or two, but how long can it go? Aslo, I've been told the BIG REDS can age much longer than whites... ok, this IS a dumb question, what's the difference in reds and white? only color? And does this only apply to grape wines? are there red and white versions of other fruits? or do they each fall into either category? My very first bottle I bottled was apple...I had planned to never open it, and bottle more bottles to open after a year or two...then open the never open bottle after 10 or 20 or 30 years. Is this a mistake? Should I just open it after a year or two? Is there a difference between using fresh fruits or concentrates when it comes to aging? I found a bunch of individual aging question threads all over the forums with few answers, but no real information...is there a sticky on aging? Can we start one? Maybe some kind of chart listing various fruits and peak ages? ....damn, I could go on forever about this, so I'll stop here and see what pans out.

 

[novalou]

OK, I'm sure all of us noobz have heard the old saying about wine getting better with age, and the movies where they crack open a bottle from 1793 or there abouts. Then I saw the thread about dandelion aging and discover it peaks at two years. Then I saw a thread about mead aging, and that it'll last 20 yrs or so. I guess my apples and apple/cherry should be ok in a year or two, but how long can it go? Aslo, I've been told the BIG REDS can age much longer than whites... ok, this IS a dumb question, what's the difference in reds and white? only color? And does this only apply to grape wines? are there red and white versions of other fruits? or do they each fall into either category? My very first bottle I bottled was apple...I had planned to never open it, and bottle more bottles to open after a year or two...then open the never open bottle after 10 or 20 or 30 years. Is this a mistake? Should I just open it after a year or two? Is there a difference between using fresh fruits or concentrates when it comes to aging? I found a bunch of individual aging question threads all over the forums with few answers, but no real information...is there a sticky on aging? Can we start one? Maybe some kind of chart listing various fruits and peak ages? ....damn, I could go on forever about this, so I'll stop here and see what pans out.

Basically the more tannins in the wine, the longer it will age. Red wines are higher in tannins, will age longer. Any wines that are barrel aged get tannins from the oak, will age longer.

Fruit wines are typically high on acid. The acidity will take time to mellow out, so they might taste better a year or two after they are fermented.

Hope this helps.

 

[podz]

We drink a lot of wine, ranging from expensive to cheap. I'm no snob at all - I have been known to dig the cork out of a bottle of Amarone with a pocket knife and drink it straight from the bottle while holding a big chunk of warm, greasy parmesan in the other hand and knawing off bites between drinks. If I spilled a bottle of it on the floor, I'd probably sit down and suck it up with a straw

My opinion is that there are only two reasons to age wine:

1. You have your own cave or you can afford to build your own cave and you know that you are never going to move and that a train track will never be laid in the vicinity of your cave.

2. You are able to buy or make ageable wine faster than you are able to drink it.

Generally, any wine that is capable of being aged will cost about 3-4 times the amount of a bottle of decent everyday wine - they hit you with the "ageability tax" up front. For example, Valpolicella is a damned good everyday wine that is made in the same region of Italy from the same grapes as Amarone, only the winemaking process is different. Amarone can be aged, Valpolicella not so much. Amarone costs 3-4 times as much per bottle as Valpolicella. Aged for 10 years, a bottle of Amarone will sell for 8-10 times it's original price - perhaps more.

If I had a cave, the only way I could age a bottle of Amarone for 10 years would be if I had bought 5 thousand bottles of it to start with - because I would drink it at the rate of 1-2 bottles per day, every day ;-) I mean, damn, you could get ran over by a bus and die with undrank wine in your cave. That's tragic.

 

[T_Baggins]

Basically the more tannins in the wine, the longer it will age. Red wines are higher in tannins, will age longer. Any wines that are barrel aged get tannins from the oak, will age longer.

Fruit wines are typically high on acid. The acidity will take time to mellow out, so they might taste better a year or two after they are fermented.

Hope this helps.

On barrel aging, do we age in the barrel as long we would in a bottle, or is it for a specific time period and then into a bottle... like Makers 46?

I would really like to understand the aging process and apply it correctly, rather than experiment for 10 years only to find out I screwed up and have to start all over again!