Aging Pinot Noir: Helen Mirren or Keith Richards?
“Like a fine wine, I get better with age.” It’s an old adage that sounds nice, but we all know examples to the contrary. So how do you know if your wine is a Helen Mirren – one for whom the years only serve to undress her subtle beauty, grace, and style – or a Keith Richards – one that you wish had kept his clothes on? The key is that not all wines are “fine.” In fact most aren’t.
The truth is that 85-90% of wines produced worldwide are at their peak upon release and are meant to be drunk when you purchase them. As tastes are more and more influenced by a “new world” style of wine, that percentage may be growing. Life is uncertain, and people want good wine now, not in 20 years when we’ll all be refugees in Antarctica. Yes, these non-fine wines can hang around for a year or two, and sometimes longer, and they will continue to change… but maybe not into something that tastes better. And depending on how you store them, that extra time may actually make them taste worse.
Your own preferences make a big difference too. A wine’s “peak” is necessarily subjective, and possibly B.S. If you like wine young and fruity, you might not be able to appreciate its evolution past a certain age… in which case there’s little reward to aging a bottle. On the other hand, I personally find many wines to be released too early.
As an aside, my own tragedy is that as I approach an age (whose name shall not be spoken) when I have a little savings and an acquired appreciation for wine, the idea of buying a bottle now that I can’t drink for twenty years fills me with mortal dread. I would love to witness the transformation that an aged Chateau Margaux or DRC or even a Beaux Freres or McKinlay undergoes after 20 years. But what if I patiently and carefully store my wine all that time and then die in the 19th year without ever tasting it? It’s a wine geek’s nightmare!
So how do you know if you have a bottle from the other 10%, the kind that are designed to age? Here’s a good rule of thumb: the more affordable it is, the more likely it is that you should go ahead and enjoy it now. Those “fine” wines tend to be on the high end of the price scale.
Other than that… you could try buying cases of wines. Drink one bottle each year for 12 years, or every other year for 24. After 12 to 24 years you should be able to tell not only how well that wine ages, but also at what age you most prefer it. And if you have that kind of patience, let me know. I have a three year old that I’d like to loan you for a few years (human, not wine).
Here’s another adage: “Wine does improve with age. The older I get, the better I like it.”