The most impressive concept of wine is still “wine is mellow”. Regarding the concept of red wine, it is commonly believed that the longer the wine ages, the better the quality. Some people even believe that vintage is the only measure of wine quality. Is it true that the longer a wine is stored, the better it is? This is not the case.
The main purpose of storing ordinary wine is to allow the wine to continue to mature in the bottle, developing complex aromas, fine structure and a smooth texture. Therefore, a bottle of wine has a life span, just as a person has a life span. When the grapes for the wine are still hanging on the branches, the wine begins its initial growth phase, much like a human being in her mother’s womb.
After the grapes are ripe, the wine is harvested, the juice is pressed, the wine is produced, and the wine is matured in oak barrels. The wine is then bottled and must have a suitable storage environment when it enters its dormancy. After ageing, the quality of the wine improves again, just as the human being matures from school to society. After aging, the wine continues to release its good qualities for a period of time, which is the best time for the wine to be consumed. Therefore, most of the world’s red wines will be consumed within 2-3 years after bottling.
Finally, the wine will enter its aging period, which will vary depending on the aging potential of the wine. The tannin content of red wines is the dominant factor. Aging does not mean that the wine has gone bad and is undrinkable, but during this time it has lost its original style and has become a mediocre liquid that few people want to drink again.
If you have to set a “shelf life” for a wine, you might as well set a “proper drinking period” for it. Normal wines have a shelf life of about 5-10 years. Fine wines generally require 8-10 years to reach maturity and can therefore be kept for a long time. If stored properly, only a few of the world’s top wines can be stored for decades or even centuries.
In today’s world, wine is often divided into two worlds, the Old World and the New World. The Old World refers to European countries such as France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, which have been making wine for thousands of years. These countries have always followed traditional winemaking methods, combined with unique local conditions and a long history of grape growing, resulting in wines that are mostly heavy, with strong tannins and strong aging potential. Combined with a romantic interpretation, the wines produced in these countries tend to be more aristocratic and romantic. For example, the Bordeaux Grand Cru of France has a high investment value due to its scarcity and resistance to storage.
The New World refers to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Argentina and other countries where the wine industry has only been developing for two or three hundred years. These regions produce wines with fresh fruit flavors and high sugar content due to their humid climate, abundant sunlight and unique soil characteristics, making them unsuitable for long-term storage. Long-term storage results in the loss of fruit flavors and distinguishing characteristics, so wines from New World countries are generally suitable for consumption within five years.
But why do most people think that the longer the wine is stored, the better it is? There are two types of misconceptions, one is the misunderstanding of “age” and the other is the misconception of habitual thinking.
Many consumers do not really understand the concept of “vintage” in wine. The “year” has a special meaning for wine. Its main function is to record when the grapes were harvested. The reason we keep track of the vintage is that even wines from the same region and from different vintages can vary in quality due to natural factors such as weather conditions and sandy soils. Therefore, the criteria for judging the vintage are not related to the length of time, but to a series of natural indicators such as rainfall, sunshine hours, etc. In the case of Bordeaux, the best five years of wine production in the last 30 years were 1982, 1986, 2000, 2005 and 2009.
In addition, another important reason is the misunderstanding of people’s habitual thinking. People always think that time is the test of everything and that what stands the test of time is a good thing. In fact, this understanding ignores the characteristics of wine. Because white wine has always been produced in China, the older the wine, the more robust it is, and the average consumer has a cognitive bias towards wine, believing that wine, like white wine, can be kept as long as possible. In fact, judging the quality of a bottle of wine by its vintage alone is a bit one-sided.
After all, the quality of wine is not only influenced by innate conditions such as weather and soil, but also by objective factors such as the skill of the winemaker and the precision of the winemaking process. Therefore, wine is not better the longer it is, but rather the right time, place and person.
