Wines with good aging potential

[masic2000]

Master of Wine Jancis Robinson provides the following general guidelines on aging wines. Note that vintage, wine region and winemaking style can influence a wine's aging potential, so Robinson's guidelines are general estimates for the most common examples of these wines.

• Botrytized wines (5–25 yrs)
• Chardonnay (2–6 yrs)
• Riesling (2–30 yrs)
• Hungarian Furmint (3–25 yrs)
• Loire Valley Chenin blanc (4–30 yrs)
• Hunter Valley Semillon (6–15 yrs)
• Cabernet Sauvignon (4–20 yrs)
• Merlot (2–10 yrs)
• Nebbiolo (4–20 yrs)
• Pinot noir (2–8 yrs)
• Sangiovese (2–8 yrs)
• Syrah (4–16 yrs)
• Zinfandel (2–6 yrs)
• Classified Bordeaux (8–25 yrs)
• Grand Cru Burgundy (8–25 yrs)
• Aglianico from Taurasi (4–15 yrs)
• Baga from Bairrada (4–8 yrs)
• Hungarian Kadarka (3–7 yrs)
• Bulgarian Melnik (3–7 yrs)
• Croatian Plavac Mali (4–8 yrs)
• Georgian Saperavi (3–10 yrs)
• Madiran Tannat (4–12 yrs)
• Spanish Tempranillo (2–8 yrs)
• Greek Xynomavro (4–10 yrs)
• Vintage Ports (20–50yrs)

 

[masic2000]

From Kevin Zraly's wine school,

Q. Are all wines meant to be aged?

KZ: No. It's a common misconception that all wines improve with age. In fact, more than 90 percent of all the wines made in the world are meant to be consumed within one year, and less than 1 percent of the world's wines are meant to be aged for more than 5 years.

 

[balatonwine]

This chart is easier to read:

 

[masic2000]

Nice. I like your list better.

 

[user 36973]

Like the bottle of 2004 WHITE Bordeaux wine I bought this year (2018) from a local higher end wine seller. Yeah, I was looking for a white Bordeaux, really I was. Anyway, I thought it said it was a 2014 but I didn't look closely enough and have my glasses handy. And I never would have thought they would be selling me a 14 year old bottle of white wine; a 4 year old bottle was reasonable though.

And yes, the 14 year old bottle of white Bordeaux was horribly oxidized. Not meant to be aged apparently.

 

[Half Life]

So I guess when a person is making batches from juice concentrates it's probably best not to expect much from trying to age the wine, would that be correct ?

 

[PhilDarby]

My wine making style might not be typical, most of my batches are made from a combination, of concentrate and whatever real fruit I can get my hands on locally, some of the guys on here seem to do huge batches, where as I dont have the room, I typically make around 20 to 25 gallons a year usually in five gallon batches, when I can I tend to use a system a bit like a solera system and blend some of my oldest wine I have at the time into the younger one, by tasting until it suits my taste, before setting it to one side to age a bit, I also, do similar with wines which seem very harsh when young (ie) I age them seperately and sometimes use them to blend into any wine i happen to make which seems a bit bland, the wines I would describe as harsh, do eventually become drinkable or at least more so as they age, but, invariably I tend to blend them to use them up, as obviously my storage space is limited, the longest I have stored my own wine was around five years, the shortest a few months, I tend to typically drink the vast majority of my wines between 3 and 9 months of age and very little is kept longer than 12 months, just the odd bottle or two, with my own wines I have noticed significant changes from being freshly made (ie) new / young wine typically within months, for me its usually around 6 months, that I tend to drink most of it, 99 % of my wines are what I would describe as country type, mixed fruit type wines, not from pure grapes, so, my wine making style is probably not typical.

 

[Half Life]

My wine making style might not be typical, most of my batches are made from a combination, of concentrate and whatever real fruit I can get my hands on locally, some of the guys on here seem to do huge batches, where as I dont have the room, I typically make around 20 to 25 gallons a year usually in five gallon batches, when I can I tend to use a system a bit like a solera system and blend some of my oldest wine I have at the time into the younger one, by tasting until it suits my taste, before setting it to one side to age a bit, I also, do similar with wines which seem very harsh when young (ie) I age them seperately and sometimes use them to blend into any wine i happen to make which seems a bit bland, the wines I would describe as harsh, do eventually become drinkable or at least more so as they age, but, invariably I tend to blend them to use them up, as obviously my storage space is limited, the longest I have stored my own wine was around five years, the shortest a few months, I tend to typically drink the vast majority of my wines between 3 and 9 months of age and very little is kept longer than 12 months, just the odd bottle or two, with my own wines I have noticed significant changes from being freshly made (ie) new / young wine typically within months, for me its usually around 6 months, that I tend to drink most of it, 99 % of my wines are what I would describe as country type, mixed fruit type wines, not from pure grapes, so, my wine making style is probably not typical.

Sounds like you have a style that works for you so you can call that typical and be good with it

So aging even the simple concentrates has some benefits then

I like your post and sounds similar to what I will doing and probably many other are on the same page with you , you are more typical than you give your self credit for