Wines suited to drinking on or shortly after their release are generally fruity, forward and flavoursome. They might be crisp and austere, but usually they’re neither hard, tough nor astringent. They might reveal some oakiness, but are generally less complex, less structured and softer than wines intended for longer-term cellaring, unless deliberately made with zesty and refreshing acidity like Sancerre or New Zealand sauvignon blanc. These and other classic early-drinking styles like the lighter expressions of pinot noir, shiraz or Rh̫ne Valley red blends can each be entirely delicious if enjoyed in their youth. To make long-term cellaring wine of genuine quality and pedigree, you do need to harvest smaller crops, spend more money and time in the making of the wine and mature it in newer, smaller oak casks, none of which are cheap. This of course adds to the cost of production, while the lustre these long-term wines present in the marketplace can also add significantly to their price. The great cellaring wines are generally made in limited quantity and enjoy a global demand. That’s the main reason they’re not inexpensive! As it ages, wine doesn’t simply become a more intense or expressive version of what it might have been while in its youth. It actually evolves, undergoing sometimes dramatic changes in colour, smell and taste. Just as their colours become deeper and darker with time, the palate of white wines firstly becomes richer and rounder, before sliding towards an inevitable decay. While some pinot noirs will ‘build’ in the bottle over their first two years in glass, most red wines begin a gradual process of refinement and ever-increasing restraint as they mature. With reds, bottle age and development is closely linked to the polymerisation of wine tannins, themselves polymers of polyphenols extracted from grape skins and the insides of oak barrels. As they combine, molecules that were once relatively small become very large in older wines, reducing their ability to impact with the proteins in the mouth and create the familiar puckering astringency we associate with wine tannin. As they polymerise, polyphenols and tannins may frequently combine with colour and acid, creating crusts or sediment in maturing wine. As wines become older, their ability to impart a discernible effect from tannin reduces and they become noticeably softer and smoother to drink.
