Depends on the wine, and how you store it. It's not even that the wine gets better with age (bottled wine is dead, there's no remaining yeast activity, and it's not going to pick up any flavors or anything from the glass bottle), but that some vintages have historically been better than others.
If the wine's not intended to be aged, aging it isn't going to do anything good, red or white. Whether it is or it's not, if you've stored it upright, it's probably turned sour. The cork dries out, bacteria get in, and they start making vinegar and other things. Open it up and find out, you can probably tell just by color and aroma, and if you can't, a taste isn't going to make you go blind or anything.
Not sure that's entirely true. From the bit of reading i just did now, the wines that are meant to be cellared are reds that have high levels of tannin in them- bordeaux wines, some cabernets, etc. With proper aging, the tannins will precipitate out and become sediment in the bottle, while the remaining liquid will have a much more balanced and rounded flavor than if you'd drunk it the year it was bottled, with the tannins still suspended in the liquid.
but for the vast majority of wines (90% or so), yes, you do want to drink them young.
Somehow I knew you guys would all know the answer! I also emailed the vineyard I got one of the bottles from, and they were pretty much like "hell no! Don't drink that!" So that answered that :) Guess I should actually DRINK the wine I buy when I buy it!
I think most white wines are better when they're young, though some really good ones have a shelf life. I'd open it and taste and if it's good...drink up.
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If the wine's not intended to be aged, aging it isn't going to do anything good, red or white. Whether it is or it's not, if you've stored it upright, it's probably turned sour. The cork dries out, bacteria get in, and they start making vinegar and other things. Open it up and find out, you can probably tell just by color and aroma, and if you can't, a taste isn't going to make you go blind or anything.
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Not sure that's entirely true. From the bit of reading i just did now, the wines that are meant to be cellared are reds that have high levels of tannin in them- bordeaux wines, some cabernets, etc. With proper aging, the tannins will precipitate out and become sediment in the bottle, while the remaining liquid will have a much more balanced and rounded flavor than if you'd drunk it the year it was bottled, with the tannins still suspended in the liquid.
but for the vast majority of wines (90% or so), yes, you do want to drink them young.
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I also emailed the vineyard I got one of the bottles from, and they were pretty much like "hell no! Don't drink that!" So that answered that :)
Guess I should actually DRINK the wine I buy when I buy it!
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I really need to drink at my house more.
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