And what does “better” even mean?
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Not all wines get better with age, but some do. And a lot of people mix up aging in the barrel with aging in the bottle. When a wine is in a wooden barrel, it’s absorbing flavor from the wood, and it’s in contact with some oxygen that’s coming through. In stainless steel, there’s no flavor absorbed, but it’s still going through some changes. And some wine methods ferment in the barrel as well.
Once wine is bottled, a lot of that stops – the wine is no longer fermenting, and it’s not gaining any new flavors. It’s almost completely out of contact with oxygen, if stored properly (there can be some small amount coming through the cork). So the elements in the bottle itself are just slowly reacting over time – and generally, they soften, and taste less intense.
You don’t really want that with every wine – lots of wines these days are designed to taste awesome when young, with a great balance of tasty flavors. But you can get a lot of amazing flavors from a wine that is developed tasting very intense (strong tannins, fruit flavors,etc.) and then allowed to mellow for a long time – the tannins mellow, the fruit flavors come down, and you can taste more of the subtle flavors in the wine; there’s an interesting balance that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
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