Summary of today’s story: Dan Berger reflects on the complex, often unpredictable nature of aging red wines, emphasizing that while maturity can bring depth and nuance, it also carries the risk of disappointment. Drawing from personal experiences and historical insight, he explores how certain wines — especially well-made cabernets and Riojas — can transform over time, revealing flavors and aromas that only age can deliver. He warns, however, that not all wines age well, and even those that do may vary bottle to bottle. Ultimately, Berger suggests that the true joy of aging wine lies in its mystery, its demand for patience and the fleeting moments of complexity that sometimes emerge.
What Aged Wines Reveal
By Dan Berger
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — Aging some fine red wines provides a conjectural assurance of acquiring elements beyond what is squandered.
For hundreds of years, wine collectors have obtained several types of great red wines to age, even though the products probably do not taste particularly good when young. They bought these wines because of the promise that allowing them to mature in a wine cellar might prove to be beneficial. The idea is that when fine red wines have the proper constituents, they have the stuffing to gain depth and complexity, elements that far outweigh the loss of simplistic fruit.
(Which is one of the major reasons why writing complex tasting notes on extremely young wines, especially those that will benefit from aging, cannot really explain the nuances that the wine will display over a year, 10 years or 30.)
This ability to age certainly is the main message around the whole idea behind the greatest wines of Bordeaux, including some of its whites. Some of the reds can be brutishly astringent when they are young, yet are still imbued with a richness of fruit as well as a personality of their soils. To consume them when they are still young and maturing is considered to be iniquitous behavior.
Wine-lovers who understand this mentality suggest that drinking young red wines is best left to wines like Beaujolais, Crianza Riojas most California zinfandels, most Argentine malbecs and wines made from grapes such as lagrein, gamay noir and most inexpensive lighter reds, including pinot noir. (French Burgundy is a particularly special case that cannot be summarized in less than hundreds of pages. Or more.)
When it comes to California cabernet sauvignons, especially those from the Napa Valley, history says that wines from 30 to 50 years ago (1995 to 1975 and even earlier) were made with balance, lower alcohols and higher acidities — the proper constituents that required time for the wines to smooth out and gain depth and intricacy. And any time invested in the aging process had to be with the bottles stored in a cool location, sans light and unmoved. Violate the process and the wine would mutiny.
Though things have changed radically for most of today’s Napa cabernets, which are being made differently from the way they were long ago, there is a truism of which few ever speak. It is the simple fact that even with wines that are perfectly designed to be aged in the bottle for at least a decade, a fairly substantial portion of these bottles will prove to be disappointing when the cork is finally pulled.
This may be chalked up to poor closures, improper storage, something wrong with the structure of the wine and that mystical element that we refer to as bottle variation. Moreover, some wine collectors are simply incapable of understanding what a real cabernet is all about.
There are several reasons for our perception that a “great” young wine ends up decades later to be lackluster. The first one might disappoint a few people. It is that unless you know exactly what you’re doing when you begin to age red wines, chances are that you will make some mistakes and age the wrong ones. Or expect more from them than you should. I was fooled several times by this belief. But I was young, and it took me years to figure out what my problems were. One drawback is simply aging a wine too long.
Appreciating old red wines is not a science or an art form. But it does require an awful lot of understanding of why the fruit in an older wine will be the first to go and why and how the complexity will eventually replace it — or not.
Today’s word puzzle:
Challenge your vocabulary with this week’s mystery word. Submit your answer in the poll, and check the bottom of the page for the correct answer.
One problem is that far too many people want youthful fruit in their red wines more than they want complexity. And if the fruit that remains in an aged wine is insufficient for collectors’ wish lists, they will blame the wine. But the fault, dear wine-lover, is not in our superstars, but in ourselves.
One of the delights of my life has been raising three sons. One special recollection occurred when they all were pre-teens. All three came up with remarkable observations of life that showed insight and often humor, even when they were incorrect about what they observed. I wrote many of these sayings in a book, which I cherish.
It was at that moment that I had a fleeting thought that it would be charming if my kids always remained those same precocious youngsters.
It’s like that with young, vivacious cabernets. You smell all this astounding fruit and you want it to be there forever. But like kids, development changes them, and what you lose in vivacity and youthful charm is replaced by something even more fascinating. You often get so much more as they mature, even though awkward stages do occur along the pathway.
Some people cherish the awkward stages, understanding that it is a part of the growth cycle, but those who are pejorative will miss some of the joys of life. It’s kind of like enjoying the complexity of a very tart grapefruit. Some people add sugar. But sugar can destroy the personality of some citrus fruits.
When I decide to age a red wine, I live by three things: terroir, history and science. As a grape, cabernet can make a wine that will, at least in theory, age about as long as any red wine you can think of, with a possible exception of Italy’s masterpiece, Barolo. But only if the wine was properly grown in the proper soils, has the proper structure to sustain itself while it is maturing and is aged perfectly. It typically needs good acidity and balance.
Reaching a point where you can make the appropriate decision on which wines to put in a cellar takes a lot of practice. I began learning this only a decade after I began collecting wine. Those who do not age their red wines at all but want to learn more about this should do one important thing: Taste a lot of older wines and see if they like them. Some people do not.
My red wine collection was predicated partly on history. Some producers almost always deliver wines to be matured. Others do not. Moreover, I typically bypass red wines with higher alcohol levels because I have learned over the years that most of them do not age well.
When I discovered some of the wines that I bought and cellared were not aging well, I learned why. Part of it was the way the wines were made. When I began writing this essay, I thought back to several episodes regarding aging that were touchstones in my life and that left me with a feeling that some things simply cannot be taught; they must be experienced.
In 1996, we were in Madrid. The old restaurant had been in business for decades. On the wine list we discovered a bottle of 1971 Baron de Lay Rioja Reserva. The price was equivalent to U.S. $11. The restaurant owner explained that in Spain, very few people like old wine. I ordered it. The dusty bottle came out from a cavern. The Rioja showed red color with hints of brick. The aroma was alluring — old leather, cooked fresh tomatoes, a dash of cumin and that curious smoke that some old reds show that resembles a kitchen hours after cooking bacon.
The wine was silky, offering a rich but clearly fading fruit. It still had sufficient acidity to match well with potato soup and rustic bread dunked in a superb olive oil. My wife, Juliann, had tasted dozens of wines older than 50 years but never a 25-year-old tempranillo like this, and she was fascinated with the fact that the fruit that remained was slowly disappearing.
As we sipped it, we noted that the wine, cooped up for decades, was beginning to fade in the glass as we watched! After we had sipped the wine for 15 minutes, the bacon-y aroma began to dominate, but another five minutes altered it, turning it into a fading, lackluster pale brown sludge that only vaguely resembled wine.
We poured (carefully, to avoid sediment) and refreshed our glasses. But at that point, enough air had gotten to the wine to give us only another few minutes before it imploded. We watched, transfixed, as the wine slowly got browner. “It’s gone,” she said.
Mature wine from good cellaring conditions is one of the great joys we experience in wine. And though most Americans seem to be drinking more of the “great” and delighting in them as young as they can get them, for me older red wines of real character are those that make for sublime experiences. Less fruit, yes, but infinitely more depth.
One of the mysteries is that it is so difficult to know when to open a wine you have begun to age. More than once I have had to admit that I opened something too soon. But a worse situation is opening a wine too late. A friend once said, “I’d rather drink it on the way up and not on the way down.”
Ten years later, a new year was two hours away. It was a cold, rainy Saturday evening at the Dillon Beach home of Napa winemaker Mike Martini and his wife, Jacque. The fireplace discussion about old red wines swirled around the kitchen table and mingled with the scents from a 1975 Château Gruaud-Larose and a 1982 Château La Mission Haut-Brion. Both were perfectly aged and utterly sublime.
Mike, who had an incredible wine cellar, had also opened his own Louis Martini 1979 Cabernet, which exhibited wonderful fruit. He spoke of the two Bordeaux, saying that wines like them, from good vintages, can show amazing complexity with age. But not always. He explained how each bottle is its own little potential chamber of horrors, yet each develops in different ways, and when they are good, they can be phenomenal.
He gave an example. He said he planned to open an old Bordeaux at a dinner party, but when he went to open the bottle, the only thing keeping the wine inside was the capsule. There was no cork! The wine’s aroma was odd, funky and weird. He got another bottle for the party and left the corkless bottle on the kitchen counter to be tossed out the next day.
“The next morning, while I was waiting for my coffee, I poured a splash of that wine into a glass,” Mike told us, “and it had finally come around!”
I have seen wines that do the same thing. On opening a few wines over the decades, some smelled funny, but a few later developed, losing their funkiness to show charming character.
Not all aged wines are gems. Roy Brady, erstwhile wine columnist for Architectural Digest magazine and an erudite wine-collector, once authored a short, private-press book, “Old Wine, Fine Wine?” in which he posited that not all old wine is worth drinking. In particular, he said that the vast majority are not very appealing. And in those cases, he said, young is better.
However, when a properly aged red wine does achieve excellence, giving it a certain charisma, it is usually worth the long wait, the patient years, the layers of dust, the passing of special occasions that might have been too early for the wine.
I cherish my experience with the old Rioja. I had only 15 minutes of delight with that wine, and in some cases, that’s all you can really expect. Smells and tastes were not youthful or vibrant, but there was a maturity factor that only time provides. I smelled some things that simply cannot be described; they were scents I had never smelled before.
Indeed, I have had wines that really didn’t yield a lot of enjoyment when they were opened past their prime, yet still offered a look into the distant past. It is why I usually bring a backup bottle or two when opening something really old.
Aging wine can be called “the rewards of patience,” and that exact phrase is the very one that is used by Penfolds of Australia as the title of a book it publishes periodically that assesses the key qualities that make for a grand experience with Penfolds red wines that only time can deliver.
In January 2021, Penfolds staged another of its “Rewards of Patience” explorations, doing an extensive tasting of several of its wines. Only professional tasters were invited: three Masters of Wine; its chief winemaker, Peter Gago; and one of the world’s greatest tasters, Australia’s brilliant wine judge and critic James Halliday.
The book has been authored in recent editions by Andrew Caillard, MW, director of Australian wine auction house Langtons. Following the 2021 event, the company published its eighth edition of “The Rewards of Patience,” a vintage-by-vintage analysis of how several Penfolds red wines age, including older vintages. Among the best Penfolds wines that are specifically made to be aged there is the monumental Grange, its modestly priced Bin 389, St. Henri Shiraz, Magill Estate Shiraz and others.
Aging red wines is not for everyone. Most Americans who drink wine casually prefer wines with loads of fruit. But the major incentive to age red wine for collectors is the hope that a great old Burgundy might develop the proverbial “iron fist in a silk glove” texture; a classic old Napa cab may show the same elegant, assertive herbal-cherry rustic-ness nuances of Bordeaux, that a Barolo will display the faded “rose and tar” plus mushroom-ness of its legacy.
In such cases, the game is not about fruit. It is all about complexity.
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Dan Berger has been writing about wine since 1975.
Wine Discovery:
2022 Battuello Valdiguié ($60) — Grown and made by the Battuello family on their St. Helena estate, this valdiguié comes from a once-common Napa variety formerly called Napa gamay. The 2022 shows fresh red cherry, wild strawberry and a touch of cranberry, with light baking spice. Juicy red fruit carries through on the palate, with smooth tannins and a soft, medium body. The finish is clean and persistent, repeating the wine’s spice and red fruit notes. Medium-plus acidity keeps it lively; alcohol is moderate. Serve slightly cool. Pair with roast chicken, grilled salmon or mushroom ragù over polenta — Tim Carl
Today’s Polls:
This Week's Word Challenge Reveal:
The correct answer is C: “Natural aging and decline.”
Senescence is the gradual deterioration that occurs with age — whether in living organisms, plant tissues or even wines. In vineyards, it marks the aging of vines, leaves or fruit beyond their peak — and in wine bottles, it parallels the stage when structure or aroma begins to fade. Understanding senescence is vital to both viticulture and wine aging; it’s the reason a grapevine may lose vigor after decades, or a 30-year-old cabernet shows more dried fruit than fresh.
The word derives from the Latin senex, meaning “old,” and entered English in the late 17th century as a scientific term for biological aging. In grape science, senescence affects leaf function, sugar transport and berry quality — all crucial to harvest decisions. For collectors, it’s a reminder that wine, like everything living, has a curve — and that part of the beauty lies in catching it at just the right moment.
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The wine conundrum: In your youth you do not have the resources to purchase and correctly cellar your wine, nor the knowledge to acquire wine suitable for aging. With years of toil and experience, you finally have the resources to acquire and age wine, but you no longer have the decades needed to age it. And, even if you are lucky enough to live into your 80s+, there is chance your senses will be too muffled to fully appreciate it. The market for quality red wine is in the less than 10 years, and that includes several years the winery held the bottle before release. And there is real threat that after storing wine for decades or paying premium price to buy an old wine you will discover you prefer the fruitiness, freshness, and vitality of a younger wine.
I very much enjoyed reading this. I was given 20 + cases of wine 6 years ago, mostly French, mostly Chateaneuf de Pape, Vieux Telegraphe. My friend, a collector, had gone to Australia, planning to return and put her wine in a wine storage facility. After 20 years, she realized she wasn't going to return, and gave me her wine. They ranged from 1981-2000. I sold some, traded some, shared some and drank some. I still have two cases, stored in my cellar. Only a few people I know are interested in drinking them. A year ago, I opened 2 vintages 1987 and 1999 to share with 2 people eager to sample them, along with grilled lamb chops. They got better and better.