How Do Wine Flavours Alter With Age?

During the ageing process:

• Acid and tannins are softened and gain a rounder character
• Colours evolve
• Fruit flavours diminish and, if the wine has the chemical composition to support ageing, these are replaced by more complex, aged characters.

More precisely, wine can be defined by three different types of flavours and aromas throughout its life cycle:

• Primary flavours, which are determined by the soil and the varietal: fruit, mineral, floral, herbaceous.
• Secondary flavours, which are the result of the winemaking (fermentation, maturation and other processes): spices, oak, honey, toast
• Tertiary flavours, which appear with ageing: leather, earthiness, cedar etc.

It’s important to understand that flavours and textures praised in a wine's youth will dramatically alter with age, and will sometimes even disappear entirely. The only question to consider is: do you like the flavours they turn into?

White wines tend to:

• become darker in colour and lose acid
• take on more complex characters of toast, honey, and dried fruits
• The wine must have the potential to age or there is nothing pleasant available to replace the waning fruit flavours and lower acidity

Red wines tend to:

• lose vibrancy of colour and go from purplish red to brick red
• tannins will soften
• earthy, cedar, underwood and leather flavours develop over time
• Same as for whites, the wine must have the potential to age or there is nothing pleasant available to replace the waning fruit flavors

Examples