The aging of wine

Change of flavors:

Young wines display their primary aromas, such as the herbaceous notes of Sauvignon Blanc, the plum of Merlot, the apricot of Viognier, or the citrus of Riesling. One can also detect some secondary aromas associated with winemaking techniques, such as the vanilla notes from oak or the buttery notes resulting from malolactic fermentation.

Tertiary notes, or aromas resulting from the wine's aging process, emerge as the wine matures. These aromas can be pronounced notes of fresh fruit that gradually blend to evoke notes of dried fruit. Other aromas, previously masked by the intense primary notes, also emerge, such as honey, herbaceous notes, hay, mushrooms, stone, and earth.

What causes these changes? In wine, nothing is static. Acidity and alcohol react to form new compounds. Other compounds can dissolve and recombine in different ways. These processes occur continuously and at varying rates. Each time you open a bottle, you taste the wine at a different stage of its development, with ever-new and distinct nuances. Even if the proportions of alcohol, acidity, and sugar remain constant, the aromas are constantly evolving.

Texture change:

Wines also evolve in terms of texture. Aged dry white wines can develop an almost syrupy and oily texture, while red wines tend to soften. This is due to phenolic compounds such as tannins settling to form a sediment over time.

In a young wine, these compounds repel each other, remaining small enough to stay suspended in the wine. As the wine ages, these compounds lose their charge and begin to clump together, forming chains and becoming larger, heavier particles. This reduces the surface area of ​​the tannins. On the palate, they then become softer, rounder, and more delicate.

Once these agglutinated compounds become too large, they settle to the bottom of the bottle to form sediment. Some red wines produce a lot of sediment, others almost none.

Color change:

Slow oxidation is one of the most visible processes in the evolution of wine. Color is its most obvious sign.

With age, the color of white wines changes from pale yellow to golden, amber, or even tawny hues. Rosé wines, with their bright salmon-pink color, can display onion-skin tones. As they age, the oxidation of red wines causes their color to evolve from the slightly purplish reds at the beginning of the spectrum to tawny or brown hues.

While red wines can appear opaque when the glass is tilted against a white background, mature wines often exhibit a lighter color at the edges. This is known as the rim of the disc.

The rate of oxidation depends on the amount of air left at the neck of the bottle after corking and the degree of airtightness. Traditionally, the use of natural cork allows for minimal oxygen transfer, which is why most wines intended for aging still use cork. However, since cork is a natural product, uniformity is not guaranteed. This can lead to considerable variation within the bottle, and even within the wine itself. Meanwhile, sophisticated synthetic closure solutions such as Nomacor replicate this oxygen transfer more predictably. Even the seals on screw caps allow for some oxygen transfer, making it perfectly possible to age and store these wines in a cellar.