🏷️ Bottle ageing

Bottle ageing is when wine matures quietly in a closed bottle. The wine has been bottled and sealed, and it keeps changing for several months or years. This is a continuation of the general ageing of wine, but without the barrel and without access to air.

What happens meanwhile? The taste and aroma slowly rearrange. Sharp young notes soften, tannins become gentler, and a bouquet appears, that is, the complex aroma of a mature wine. The speed depends on the wine: light and simple ones are best drunk young, while dense and acidic ones can develop for decades.

Storage conditions matter: coolness, darkness and a steady temperature. The bottle size also matters: in a large bottle, such as a magnum, wine ages more slowly. Some wines are deliberately aged at the winery before sale. This is done, for example, with vintage port and with French vins de garde.

Not all wines improve in the bottle. Most are meant to be drunk in the first year or two.