Wine. How does it work? What constitutes quality? And aging: can I take the cheap ass grocery store wine, keep it for 50 years and then sell it for millions as vintage?
In: 11
As a starting point, quality comes from the produce used and the care taken during production. Just like how a homemade apple pie is often better than the frozen one I can buy at the supermarket – more care went into selecting the ingredients used, and into each step of the process along the way. Good-quality wine starts with a vineyard that selects the right varietal of grape, grows it under good conditions, harvests and processes it properly, and takes care at each step of the process.
But here’s the thing with wine: that quality only goes so far. You can buy bottles for $20 that probably put just as much effort into this stuff as the $400 bottles. What you’re paying for, in part , is the label – who is growing it and how much clout they have in the wine industry, which is partly “they’ve been making good stuff consistently, so I trust this will be good” and partly, let’s be real, name recognition, trends, or plain old snobbishness. And what you’re also paying for, in expensive wines, is often *uniqueness*, because they tend to be made from one specific grape, grown in one specific bit of land, to create a very specific flavor that separates them from the pack. Whether that tastes good to you or not is usually a matter of preference, but people who really like wine are often looking for something unique and interesting, above all.
And as for aging wine, it’s important to keep in mind that aging wine doesn’t make it *better* necessarily, it just makes it different. In general, aging wine makes it more mellow – the tannins become less intense, the acidity balances out, etc. And that makes the more subtle flavors stand out more, the ones that would usually be covered up by stronger ones. So it comes down to preference – some people prefer big, juicy, young wines that are packed full of flavor. And some people prefer more mellow wines that have aged, so that they can think about the more subtle notes that come out. Usually the wines that are aged and sold at high prices are wines that are developed by expert winemakers and known by reputation to improve with age, so that people know to expect those interesting, subtle flavors to come out. Plus, I’ll say again, some snobbish people just think that older=better, so are willing to pay more for it.
Your average cheap bottle of red wine is unlikely to improve much over time, so you’re not going to become a millionaire by selling it aged. In fact, a lot of modern wine is basically intended to be drunk young, and developed to taste good at a young vintage. Many wine experts will tell you “find what you like and drink it, and if it’s cheap, so much the better.”
Latest Answers