In general, you can drink most wines right away, especially most white wines. But certain wines, especially red wines with lots of tannins in them, get better with age.
Not just yet.... Certain wines get better with age. And if you're going store them, ideally keep them in a cool, dark place like this cellar shown here in 2011 at Schramsberg Vineyards and Cellars in Calistoga, Calif.
Does wine get better with age?
Sounds like a simple question.
But there's no simple answer.
In general, you can drink most wines right away, especially most white wines. But certain wines, especially red wines with lots of tannins in them, get better with age. And many white wines from Germany and the Burgundy region of France can be fantastic a few years down the road. (There's entire books and blogs devoted to this whole subject - when best to drink certain wines.)
Tannins are not grapes that have spent a lot more time in the sun. Although there is something to be said for years when there's more sun, especially late in the year. But more about that later.
Tannins are a chemical substance found in the grapes used to make wine. These natural-forming chemicals give certain wines - especially certain red wine grapes - a slightly bitter taste when the grapes are young. But when they grow old, count your lucky stars because the best of these wines will knock your socks off with how smooth and velvety they taste on the tip of your tongue.
I talked a bit about this in an earlier article when I suggested you simply set certain wines aside for a day or two to give them time to open up a little more.
But with really tannic wines, you might wish you hadn't opened that wine for a few more years.
You read that right. Years.
Some of the best red wines from the best years in the French regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy get better - MUCH, much better with age. Certain wineries in particular in both French regions have been hitting them out of the park almost year after year for the past decade. The same goes for some California cabernet sauvignons and certain Italian red wines from Tuscany and the Piedmont region.
And be aware that there are many subregions with subregions for almost any area you're talking about. In Italy especially and Burgundy, it seems like certain regions are no bigger than some guy's back yard.
But how come all red wines from all these regions don't always get better with age? Why is it that there are more tannins in some of these wines and hardly any in the same wine from the same winery another year?
This is where the sun comes in.
In general, the hotter the weather, the more tannic the wine. But even that's not completely true. If the weather's too hot during the summer, many grapes dry out and lose a lot of their flavor. There needs to be just enough rain late in the summer and early fall to keep the grapes alive and not wither on the vine.
That's why global warming doesn't guarantee there will be one fantastic tannic year after another for years to come. If the weather's too dry, there's just not enough life in the grapes to make them worth the wait.
And you really want to get wine nerdy, make sure to store the wine in a cool, dark place. Ideally, the temperature should be in the upper 50s and not too humid. If you have a dirt basement with stone walls, consider yourself blessed.
So which years are the years to set aside? Here's a list of some regions and some years in general worth the wait. The wines and years listed here are also ones you should still be able to find in some stores. What's the point of saying you should really get your hands on some 1982 or 1945 Bordeaux at your local package store when you have about as good a chance of hitting the Daily number? It's just plain cruel in my book.
So here's the regions and the years to be on the lookout for, and then wait a few years to drink.
BORDEAUX (Red)
2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000
BORDEAUX (White)
2011, 2010, 2009, 2006, 2005, 2001
BURGUNDY (Red)
2010, 2009, 2008, 2005
CALIFORNIA (Cabernet Sauvignon)
2011, 2009
ITALY (Tuscan Reds)
2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006
ITALY (Piedmont Reds)
2009, 2008, 2007, 2006