A question on when to drink certain wines....

Roberta, you are correct that wines change with time and may taste better or worse from year to year. The only universal truth is that all wines will eventually taste bad if kept long enough ;-) The problem is that each wine is different in how it ages, so generalizations are difficult. Even the experts can't always get it right. However, that doesn't stop them from generalizing, as you can see here:

A good wine from a good year. If it's been kept in a cool place (

Your understanding is correct. Wine changes in the bottle. In general, most wines get better for a while, then go downhill. Wine can be too young to have reached its full potential, and it can be old enough that it no longer tastes good at all.

Yes, it's very important. How wine changes in the bottle, and how long it lasts before starting to go downhill depends on several things: what part of the world it's from, what the specific wine is, what the vintage is, and how it's been stored. There are vintage charts that you can use as a guide (Google will turn up lots of them), but they are never as specific as you might like them to be, and no chart can take storage conditions into consideration.

What many people do when they buy a wine to put away for aging is to buy a case of it, estimate when it might be ready, then start tasting a bottle every year from then on.

Getting back to your bottle, again, how it's been stored is very important, but my guess is that is that either now or some time over the next few years would a good time for it.

Thank you - the chart (as well as your opinions) are very helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question

Roberta (in VA)

Thank you very much for your opinion

after reading the opinions here I think I will try and convince him to try it sometime this holiday season - it hasn't been stored in the best of conditions(he is military and we move alot) we have made a great effort to at least keep it on its side lol

thank you again and I will let you know how it turns out

Roberta

You're welcome. Glad to help.On its side is important, but storage temperature is perhaps even more important.

Unfortunatly I know :( When I bought it I had no idea....perhaps someday I will have a wine fridge "thingy" Until then I will be more selective about my purchases and not buy those that "require" some aging to be good

Roberta (in VA)

Roberta,

One little "aside" to Mark's excellent answer. A bit of the aging of a wine is predicated on the taster's personal preferences. Some like more tannic reds in their youth, rather than the more often prefered mellow, aged variety. Same for whites - some like them young with every fruit nuance, while others like them older with more incorporated elements, however with a bit less fruit, than upon release. Only by sampling wines, either in tastings featuring older v younger wines, or by purchasing, say a case, and then trying a bottle over time, will one truly know what they like best, and it is likely to differ, depending on the wine itself. Example: my wife likes younger Vintage Ports, while I think she is experiencing them far too young. However, she likes them that way, so I don't force my desire to age them for decades on ALL of the VP's - each purchase gets some set aside for me much later, but a few bottles get opened early on, for her.

Hunt

Hunt