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The virtue of old age

Do white wines age as well as reds? Or even better?

Most wines are drunk within 12 hours after purchase. For many people, "wine storage" means putting a bottle on the kitchen counter-top for a couple of days until the next dinner party. Which is a shame because unlike other beverages, wine is the one that can improve vastly during aging in bottle.

Two weeks ago I attended a fascinating vintage comparison tasting of white wines in Manhattan, organized by wine consultant Michael Kirstein. Lined up in front of us were 12 carefully selected bottles: six different wines of two different vintages each.

This was interesting in two regards: for one it was an opportunity to taste white wines which were 30 to 40 years old, which is something I don't get to taste every day. On the other hand, comparing an old vintage with a recent one threw light on how exactly aging had affected the wine.

Not all wines improve in the bottle. In general, a wine falls into one of these categories:

• wines meant to be drunk young, usually within 1-2 years after bottling. These wines tend to lose their fruit characters if kept longer - Beaujolais Nouveau, Pinot Grigio, inexpensive Riesling QbA
• wines which can be drunk when young but which will also gain complexity by additional bottle aging - most Riesling falls into this category
• wines which need additional bottle aging to fully unfold their aromas and flavors - Vin Jaune from Jura, Barolos from Piedmont

Why are some wines age-worthy and others are not?

Unlike most food items wines do not have a "Best before" recommendation printed on their labels. But that does not mean that a wine can be kept in the bottle indefinitely. In order to age well and actually improve over a long period of time the wine needs to have concentration and high levels of polyphenols. Polyphenols (aka phenolics) are chemical compounds found primarily in the skin of a grape, the most important being tannins and anthocyanins (which give the wine its color). They are anti-oxidants and thus act as a preservative in the wine. A grape's flavor compounds are also part of the group of phenolics. White wines have less tannins and anthocyanins than red wines which is why a lot of people think that whites don't age as well. The opposite is true. The dry, concentrated white wines of Germany and Burgundy will last for decades in the bottle. Some of the most age-worthy examples are sweet white wines: French Sauternes, Hungarian Tokajis or German Trockenbeerenauslesen are extremely concentrated and can last for a century or more.

It's the lack of concentration that allows inexpensive simple wines only a short life span. If the soil is fertile a vine will grow many bunches of grapes and many leaves, which means less nutrients per grape and eventually less concentrated grape juice. Where quantity is the main concern for growing grapes the quality will suffer and the wine will not have enough phenolics to live a long life and age well. A simple Estate Riesling with no particular vineyard designation is meant to be drunk young because the grapes were probably grown on lesser parts of a vineyard with higher yields. On the other hand, if a particular vineyard is given on the label, such as "Zeltinger Sonnenuhr", "Kastelberg" or "Zöbinger Heiligenstein", the vineyard name designates higher quality of the grapes and the wine will benefit from additional age in the bottle.

Some white varietals have a reputation of aging better than others because they have a higher natural acidity which protects the wine during the aging process. Riesling and Grüner Veltliner are known for their high levels of acidity. Pinot Blanc on the other hand has lower acidity levels, but if yields are kept low as in Alsace it enjoys a much longer life in bottle compared to a high-yielding inexpensive Pinot Bianco from Italy. Critics will often mention in their tasting note whether a bottle can and/or should be kept or not. Ideally one should ask the person who made the wine how long it will last but that's not always feasible. Unless they publish their own tasting notes like Eloi Dürrbach of Domaine de Trevallon.