Sunday, July 5, 2009

Maturity Curves




Maturity curves . . .

No, I'm not talking about your grandmother's hips;)




This piece is about how a wine changes over time. You need to understand wine maturity curve theory, in order to drink your wines at the right time.

If you graph wine quality (vertical scale) vs time (horizontal scale), you will see this: Almost all wines rise in quality after bottling. The time needed to reach the plateau is about the same as the time that the wine spends on the plateau, so if a wine needs 3 years or so to reach its "peak" (its plateau of highest quality), it will likely remain on the plateau for about three years. (for very long-lived wines, this rule isn't always true.)
Typically, the time spent on the plateau is shorter for most whites (just a few months, in the case of a Prosecco), and longer for most reds, and then the wines fall off as the wine finally deteriorates (it can lose its fruit, or it can be oxidized). The shape of the maturity curve and its length depend on the varietal, the bottle size, the storage temp and humidity, and the wine's unique chemistry, as affected by the vintage's weather, the soil conditions, and the winemaker's practices. Most whites will hang at their peak for only a year or three (exceptions are certain sweet wines and some sparkling wines). Reds typically last much longer--if a red has a lot of tannin, the bottle likely will last a long time. Certain Bordeaux can hang on the "plateau" for decades; the question with them is whether the fruit will still be there when the tannins have finally softened and integrated. Ports and, especially, madeiras, with their higher-alcohol content and heat treatment, last the longest--centuries, perhaps. Also, most wines' quality curves will tail off gently, so if you're a year or two late in the case of a red, it's probably still OK.
A warning: If your wines are stored hotter than a cave (a cave being about 55F in this latitude), that will age the wines prematurely, so the maturity curve will have to be shortened accordingly.

Here are some wine-aging tips, from thisfrenchlife.com:

If you want to know what stage a wine is at, open a bottle, drink part of it over two hours and try to see how it evolves during this time. Then, do not protect it from oxidation and retry it the next day.
- If it has improved in the first two hours and got even better the next day, let it sleep at least another 5 years and try it again.
- If it has improved in the first two hours and declined the next day, drink it in the next 10 years with occasionall re-tests, to know how it actually evolves.
- If it declines within the first two hours, drink the rest of it up quickly.
Salud!
Kenton

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