Any wine tour guide would tell you that there are certain prerequisites that make liquor, such as this, finer with age.
So, let’s put our ‘aging like fine wine’ puns to the side and get to the sort of requirements wine must meet to deserve being oaked and sold at higher rates than its younger colleagues.
pH Level
Wines with low pH levels, mainly those between 2 and 3, are the ideal candidates for aging. This is because the lower the level, the more acidic it is.
You see, wines that start strong generally flatten out and lose their acidity with age. They become mellower, and their taste range unfurls the older they get. This is why they should be oaked before consumption.
On the other hand, wines with high pH levels, so those between 3 and 4, will not behave similarly. In other words, you should never oak them because they are already at their best.
Tannic-ness
A naturally occurring compound in grape skin, leaves, and stems, tannin gives some wines their dry quality. You can judge whether a drink has high or low levels of it by the extent to which it leaves your mouth feeling dry during wine tastings.
Therefore, if a wine has high tannin levels from the get-go, aging will bring them down as it breaks over time.
However, making wine too dry just so it will age well is also not good practice, which is why you must be careful and make it drinkable whether it’s young or old.
Tipsiness
For most tannic red and white wines made for aging, the alcohol levels must be kept low, and the wine itself be made of mildly ripe grapes from colder regions.
So, if you find yourself at a liquor store browsing for wines to oak, buy the ones whose alcohol levels are under 13.5%.
High Sugar Levels
Since dry wines make better candidates for aging, sweet ones are often overlooked. The truth is, sweet wines age just as well as any dry wine, provided they have a well-balanced percentage of tannin in them.
High sugar levels can be achieved with fully ripened grapes, which need a warmer climate to grow.
Wine tasting Tours in Solvang
In case it wasn’t clear, wines that are well-balanced in their tannin, alcohol levels, sweetness, and pH levels age the best. It is for this reason that technique matters a great deal, and why some wines or more famous than others.
If you want to taste the difference between young and old wine, treat yourself to one of Artisan Excursion’s wine tours. They offer the sweetest Solvang wine tasting deals for couples and groups. You don’t even have to worry about catching anything because the wine tasting itself complies with Standard Operating Procedures.
So, book yourself a spot for a trip around the wineries and vineyards.
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