The Art of Wine Making: Determining How Long to Age the Wine

Photo by Liv Kao on Unsplash

Aging of a wine before bottling is a balance between the wine’s inherent qualities and the winemaker's goals.

The decision often involves experimentation, understanding the vineyard, and following the wine’s natural development over time.

Here are some of the considerations that a wine maker may use when deciding how long to age a wine before they bottle it for sale:

  • Grape Variety - Red grapes have more structure and tannin that allow for greater aging

  • Acidity - Higher acidity wines are better suited for aging

  • Alcohol Content - Higher alcohol wines generally age better

  • Tannin - Tannin levels allow a wine to age better and the levels will reduce with aging

  • Sugar - Higher residual sugar (RS) level allow a wine to age better

  • Phenolic Compounds - Wines with a higher concentration of phenolics can age better

  • Oak Barrels - New barrels impart significant flavor while used barrels impart little flavor

  • Vintage Characteristics - Different vintages can age better than others

But, probably the most important factor used in making the wine-aging decision is the wine maker’s intended style. Wine aging is a balance of science and art, and the winemaker's vision for the final product plays a significant role in determining how long a wine will be aged before it’s released for consumption.

Some winemakers strive for wines with complexity and depth, which often requires extended aging. With time, a red wine will develop secondary and tertiary flavors—things like earthiness, leather, tobacco, and dried fruits—along with more rounded, integrated flavors.

But, if a winemaker is aiming for a fresher, fruitier style of red wine they may not age the wine as long, instead focusing on preserving the bright, youthful flavors of the grape. These wines are often released young to emphasize their freshness and fruit-forward style.

The bottom line is that wine makers balance many factors in determining the optimal aging time for each wine. They use their experience and talent to influence how a wine will develop over time. Ultimately, the goal is to allow the wine to reach a point where the components are in harmony and meets or exceeds the expectations of the wine maker. Truly an art! Cheers!

Behind the Cork™ - Virginia Wine Governor's Cup Winner: Paradise Springs Cabernet Franc

2023 Paradise Springs Cabernet Franc ($42)

Located in the town of Clifton, VA and bordering the Bull Run River, Paradise Springs is the closest winery to Washington DC and the first in Fairfax County. The property was originally part of a land grant from Lord Fairfax in 1716.

The Paradise Springs Brown Bear Cabernet Franc comes from the Brown Bear Vineyard, located in the Shenandoah Valley AVA on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This site sits at an elevation of 1,100 to 1,500 feet.

Produced from 100% Cabernet Franc, the grapes were de-stemmed and placed into fermentation bins, where they were heated in a warm room and inoculated with yeast. Fermentation lasted 14 days before the wine was pressed. It was then transferred into barrels, where it aged for 8 months in a mix of new and neutral French oak barrels.

This Paradise Springs Cabernet Franc is medium ruby in color with delicate aromas of black cherry and plum. On the palate, this medium-bodied wine has flavors of cherry, raspberry and blueberries, with medium tannin, medium acidity and an easy finish.

Paradise Springs Cabernet Franc is another winner of the Virginia Wine Governor’s Cup and included in the winner’s case. It’s a very nice wine at an affordable price making it a great fit as this week’s Behind the Cork™ Wine of the Week. Cheers!

Disclosure of Wine Sample Submission: I received this sample at no cost for review.

Media Sample Provided by Paradise Springs Winery, Virginia Wine and Donna White Communications

The Art of Wine Making: Choosing Aging Vessels Other Than Oak Barrels

An Amphora Wine Vessel

(Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay)

Oak barrels are often the choice of a wine maker for an aging vessel. But, did you know, stainless steel, concrete and amphora are also used by wine makers in order to achieve the wine style that they desire.

Stainless steel is inert, meaning it doesn’t impart any flavors to the wine. This allows the pure expression of the grape variety, terroir, and vintage characteristics to shine through. Stainless steel aging vessels help preserve a wine’s aromas, bright fruit flavors and acidity. They can also be made airtight so that the wine is exposed to little or no oxidation during the aging process.

Winemakers have found that concrete aging vessels are semi-porous and allows for oxygenation like oak. It is also a neutral material that does not impart flavor and it is a natural insulator that stabilizes the temperature of the wine during aging. This allows winemakers to produce wines that tend to preserve the bright and fruit-forward flavors while still allowing for the important process of allowing the wine to ‘breathe’ during production.

Amphora is a ceramic vessel usually made of earthenware (e.g., clay or terra cotta) that was originally used in the transport of grains in Roman times. Research has shown that the use of amphorae dates to as early as 6,000 B.C. Amphora earthenware is naturally porous, like concrete, but it can also be made to be impervious to external oxygen by internally lining it with wax (i.e., beeswax) or tree resin. This creates a thin, smooth, polished coating that does not impart any flavor. Or, if the winemaker desires, it may be left unlined. Additionally, the amphora vessels can be left uncovered or sealed to prevent air contact with the wine.

The Art of Wine Making: Choice of Oak Barrels for Wine Aging

Wine may be fermented and aged in a variety of materials including stainless steel, oak and ceramic vessels, including concrete. The use of oak barrels is very common and its use dates back to the early days of Roman wine making.

While stainless steel imparts no additional flavor to a wine, and ceramics and concrete can add hints of minerality, oak barrels can have influences that range from subtle to intense.

When wine is aged in oak barrels, it develops flavors from the wood. Most commonly, oak barrels result in vanilla flavor that works well with many white and red wines.

If a wine is aged in 100% new oak, it will likely be very bold, rich, spicy and, of course, oaky. But, wines pull these flavors out of barrels relatively quickly. After the first year of use, a barrel loses much of its flavoring ability and, after three vintages, the wine has extracted most all of the oak's flavors, thus it is considered neutral oak.

Wines may still be fermented or aged in neutral barrels. Such aging tends to soften wines, particularly tannic wines, without adding the extra flavors. Neutral oak is typically used to maintain the fruit qualities in a wine while still getting some of the other benefits of aging in oak.

Much of the flavor imparted by the oak occurs naturally from the raw wood. But winemakers learned long ago that by "toasting" the inside of an oak barrel, they can enhance these flavors.

After a barrel is built, its inside can be exposed to fire to "toast" it. This is done either over an open flame or using a hand-held torch. The fire 'caramelizes' the wood's natural sugars and brings out complex compounds. From this, the wine will ultimately take on flavors that are toasty, charred, spicy and sweet depending on the amount of time the wood is toasted.

A lightly toasted barrel spends about 25 minutes exposed to flame while a heavily toasted barrel may get up to one hour of flame exposure. Essentially, the heavier the toast, the stronger and more varied are the imparted flavors.