I don't know if there is a definitive answer for when aging starts. IMO it starts when fermentation is done. The wine goes through chemical changes that are affected by the lees, heat, sunlight, and additives such as oak. This process continues, to some extent, for the life of the wine.
Adding oak after the wine clears doesn't interrupt the aging process -- it alters it by adding another factor. Alcohol, acid, and sugar levels have an effect, as does container size.
The more "stuff" that's in the wines, the longer the aging process appears to take, to produce a more palatable wine. Red are typically fermented on the skins, so they pull more from the pulp during fermentation.
One of the guys who taught me fermented his whites on the skin, processing them exactly like reds. His white were "meaty", much heavier than any other white I've had since then. They needed nearly as much time as reds to age, typically a year in the barrel and then a year or 2 in the bottle.
Adding oak after the wine clears doesn't interrupt the aging process -- it alters it by adding another factor. Alcohol, acid, and sugar levels have an effect, as does container size.
The more "stuff" that's in the wines, the longer the aging process appears to take, to produce a more palatable wine. Red are typically fermented on the skins, so they pull more from the pulp during fermentation.
One of the guys who taught me fermented his whites on the skin, processing them exactly like reds. His white were "meaty", much heavier than any other white I've had since then. They needed nearly as much time as reds to age, typically a year in the barrel and then a year or 2 in the bottle.
