When to Drink Wine, Once You've Stored It

I hope you are asking when to drink wine because you're taking my advice and storing it. If not, why not? It is so easy and inexpensive to enjoy good wine this way.

Now, the answer. That depends on the type of wine.

Basic rules based on my experience:

Red Wine Types: 3-7 years
White Wine Types: 1-4 years
Dessert Wine Types: 3-10 years
Sparkling Wine Types: 2-10 years
Rose Wine Types: 1-4 years

Most wines are designed for drinking within 3-5 years, so keep that in mind. With reds though, I always keep them longer than recommended and have not had one go bad yet.

Exceptions:

Bordeaux Wines: 5-? years, If you have spent the money to buy these wines, I would call the winery and ask them when they recommend drinking them. There is nothing like spending $40-$1000 on a bottle of wine and having it go bad.

Champagne: 5-20 years after bottling. Another time when it is good to call.

Riesling: 5-20 years. This ages better than some Bordeauxs.

Barolo, Barbaresco: 5-?, remember these are the wines I mentioned people were recorked after 30 years. That being the case, who knows?

Beaujolais: As soon as you buy it and bring it home. As long as it is chilled.

Your best resource is the winegrower. No one will know their wine better. Just google their info and shoot them an email. Better yet, give them a call. No one will give you more information about a wine than the people that grew it.

Hope that helps and if not, or if you beg to differ, let me know with a comment below. I would love to hear from you.

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