Preferred Wine Cellars
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The Best Types of Wines to Age in a Wine Cellar
Some people age wine so there is always a bottle on hand when they fancy a drink or when they throw a dinner party. Other people enjoy aging the wine to increase its value and sell it for a profit. Whatever your reasons for collecting wine, it is worth learning which wines age well and which do not. It is a fact that most wines are sold ready-to-drink. If you want to keep a ready-to-drink wine in your wine cellar, you should open it within a year (or preferably sooner, unless you have great wine cellar conditions) because ready-to-drink wines are not designed to be aged.
Ready-to-drink wine has already reached its peak and will only deteriorate if you store it for a prolonged period of time. Cheaper wines are usually ready-to-drink and more expensive ones are usually good for storing (although this is not always the case).
Some wines do improve with age however and buying these means you have a longer period of time in which to store it and you do not have to open or drink it right away. If you collect wine, you can gradually add to the variety and size of your wine collection, being limited only by your budget and the size of your wine cellar.
Take advantage of wines on sale and bargain wines. You might not want to buy a case of ready-to-drink wine and drink it all within a few months but you can buy a whole case of wine that is good for aging, and drink it at your leisure.
Profitable Bordeaux Wine
Less than one percent of all the wine in the world is up to investment grade and Bordeaux wine makes up 80% of that. The resale history of Bordeaux wine is established and this wine always improves with age. There is a bit more to investing in Bordeaux, aging it, and selling it for a profit than this though. You need to do a lot of research first.
Other Types of Wine that You Can Age
Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Merlot are examples of red wines which you can age. Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling are whites which you can age.
Dessert wines like Portuguese vintage port, Madeira, Sauternes and Hungarian Tokay can also be aged, as can Prestive Cuvee Champagne. Whether you can age a particular bottle of wine well or not depends on the wine itself. For example, some Pinot Noir wines benefit from a few years in a wine cellar and others do not improve with age.
How Long to Age Different Types of Wines
Beaujolais can be kept for up to three years from its production date, unless it is Beaujolais Nouveau which should be consumed immediately. Chianti, Gewurzstraminer, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Vouvray will keep for up to five years. Non-vintage Champagne is good for up to two years but a vintage bottle is good for up to ten. Use white Bordeaux within ten years and red Bordeaux within twenty.
Cabernet Sauvignon keeps for up to fifteen years, as do sweet whites like Sauternes. Count on up to eight years for a Rioja or Merlot, up to twenty for a Riesling or vintage port, up to five for a non-vintage port and up to fifteen for Cabernet Sauvignon.
Drink white Zinfandel immediately but keep red Zinfandel for up to ten years if you like. Shiraz keeps about ten years, like Barolo and Sangiovese. Sauvignon Blanc should be drunk within a couple of years. The above timeframes are just guidelines and it depends on the exact wine and its vintage.
