Aging Wine

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and today we are discussing the tradition of aging red wine.

The tradition of cellar aging red wines is not as common as it once was. Our current lifestyles tend to create the sense that everything needs to be immediate. We often drink our wines young and we love the juicy, fruity, in your face freshness of a young red wine. We rarely impose upon ourselves the patience that it takes to wait for a wine to develop interesting and desirable characteristics that only time can provide.  When a wine is aged, we experience it after the youthful tannins have subsided and softened. As you gain experience with aged wines, you grow to appreciate the balance of the acids and the developed fruit qualities, revealed as the tannins soften. For many of you who have grown accustom to drinking young wines, appreciating aged wine will most likely become an acquired taste. However, there is a subtle complexity and layered depth in an aged wine that is truly special. I think it is an experience worth pursuing.  Seek out an older vintage of a red wine and taste it alongside a current release from the same producer. The comparison will help you to understand how wines evolve and give you insight as to what the patient collector is waiting for. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.