How-To: Tell if a Wine Should Be Aged

This is one area of wine we are still learning about. At its simplest, you can rely on the opinion of someone more knowledgeable. Winemakers will often advise on when they think the best time to drink a wine is, after they've crafted a wine they think will benefit from a few years of aging. Professional reviewers will give an idea of what they think the perfect drinking window is for a particular wine. But it's helpful to know what they are looking at, when they are talking about why an wine should be aged.

The way we understand it, a perfect wine should be a balance of flavors: acid, fruit, and other notes working well in concert together. In a young wine that can stand up to aging in the bottle for a few years, those flavors might each be perfect on their own, but be out of balance. Time spent in the bottle will allow the flavors to mellow and blend. Voila!