After writing my article about Decanting Wine, in which I explained why to decant wine, a few good questions were asked. Combined, these questions essentially led to one big question. How do I know how old a wine is and how long to decant it? That certainly is a big question, and while there is some common sense involved here, this is where experience starts to count.
We must first be able to determine how young or how old a wine is, before trying to decide how long to decant it. Looking at the wine's vintage helps of course, but this does not tell the whole story. Looking at the wine's color when in a clear wine glass helps as well, but again, does not tell the whole story. Tasting the wine also helps, but does not tell the whole story. I believe a person must look at all the different factors of a wine to put together the puzzle of how old it is. Besides what I've already mentioned, I believe the grape type, grape age, winemaker, soil, weather (during the year the grapes were grown), alcohol percent, etc. can all help determine a wine's true age.
It's important to know this is not a linear scale for every wine. Based on a wine's vintage, a five year old wine is five years old, but in what I'll call "Wine Years," that five year old wine might be over the hill and tasting like vinegar, or it might still be a baby and need 10 more years to fully mature. The difference is in how the winemaker made the wine. Some wines might be drinkable a month after bottling and be good for only the next two years, and some wines aren't even released for sale until they've had a few years in bottle, and aren't truely drinkable for a few years after that. Even when a wine begins to be drinkable, it may still be a great wine for many years to come, so it is seemingly a young wine even though it is really ten years old! Wow, information overload!
While all of those different factors can play a part in determining a wine's age, it's fairly simple after a little experience and not all of those factors really must be used. Some may be necessary more for determing the future of a wine, when it will be at its peak, or how long it will be palatable for instance. For determining the present status of a wine however, it is the look, smell, and taste of a wine that should be enough, especially for the purposes of decanting.
A Wine's Color
The different colors of a wine can be a tremendous tip for determing how old a wine is in "Wine Years" though the color can sometimes be misleading. Wines that are meant to be drank within the first year or two of bottling will not always show anything unusual in its color to suggest that it is old. A bright ruby red wine with equally bright and clear edges could very well taste like it had the fruit sucked right out of it. Normally however, by looking at the edge of the wine where it touches the sides of the wine glass, you will normally see bright and crisp edges that are the same color as the wine in the middle of the glass. The only difference is more light while be passing through the edges, so it will seem lighter.
For an older wine, this bright and clean color can be dramatically different, though it is a gradual process when looked at over the span of many months or years. As a wine ages, the color of the wine ages as well. It is first noticable on the edges. They won't be quite the same clean color any longer and will start taking on a darker, more amber hue. The older the wine in human years and wine years, the darker this amber color may get. Do not be fooled however. This wine still may have been long dead, so remember this is not the only factor in determining a wine's age, it is just one of the many clues available to you.
A Wine's Smell
Wine can give off an amazing scent, though younger wines will typically smell less and will have brighter scents more like red fruits such as strawberries or red rasberries and won't have much complexity to it. It will also usually smell fairly one dimensional. As the wine ages, it takes on more complexities, a darker fruit smell such as blackberry, dark cherry or plum. It won't be so one dimensional and will have many different aromas wafting through the air and would be considered more complex.
To this day, I can still smell the aroma of that 1986 Penfold's Grange I opened during a dinner with some of my closest friends from VinoCellar. It was lush, and sweet, completely filled my nasal cavity with the most wonderful dark fruits, cool spice and mint. I didn't even want to drink the wine simply because it smelled so good. The problem? It was not quite ready or at its peak drinking age. It sure seemed like it should be, but again, this is only one clue out of the many available to you. The smell should lead you in the right direction, but by no means is it conclusive.
A Wine's Taste
I saved the best for last. At the end the day, it is how a wine tastes that puts the finishing touches on our already big smiles. It is why I run a wine website, it is why I have a cellar full of wine I could not possibly find enough special occasions for, and it is why my checkbook balance is not as high as it should be. All of the rituals, traditions and expectations end here.
A wine's taste gives away the biggest hint as to a wine's true age. The palate entry, the mid-palate, the aftertaste and finish. Every part of each sip gives off some clues. These can be difficult to decipher as there are a mind boggling number of things you can discern from just one sip, and each of these things may have an influence over determining the wine's age.
So what do we do? We practice! Yes, that's right, you heard me. Open up some wine and start drinking. I do not want you to drink just to get drunk however. I want you to drink so you can learn and gain experience. Opening one bottle of wine does not make you an expert. Opening up 1000 bottles of wine does not make you an expert either if all you do is drink for the buzz.
Instead, when you take a sip, try to notice how the wine enters your mouth and with what flavors. Did it seem hot and burn a little? Perhaps this wine has too much alcohol and not enough fruit to balance it out. This wine might therefore age quicker than others or just fall apart after a year or two. Did the wine seem flabby and not have much acidity? Then perhaps this wine doesn't have the structure to age very well, or it is already too old. Did the wine have great amounts of fruit, a nice balance of alcohol and acidity, and also have copious amounts of smooth tannin with a balancing oak treatment? You might have found yourself a real winner here! This wine might age beautifully for years to come.
With so much information available to use just through a few sips of a wine, how could we possibly sift through it all and make sense of it? Well, we must speak in generalities. If a wine has too much of one thing, but not enough of another, it may age quickly. If a wine is balanced with equal amounts of each component, the wine may age for many years. For a wine to age, look for good amounts of fuit, balancing acidity, tannins that aren't to strong but definitely present. Also see if the alcohol is overly noticeable or if the oak is too strong. I'm barely scratching the surface here, but I believe with practice, you can start to discern which wines will last a long time and which will not.
As you practice, remember what you've learned, and listen to others who have more experience than you do. The VinoCellar Wine Forums are a great place to start of course. :-)
As always, please post any comments or questions you may have and I'll try to answer them right away.