When to drink ?
Wine is a living thing that changes over time. The best wines usually go through several phases and reveal their true nature with age.
Each of these phases can be interrupted by awkward intermediary periods (lasting months or even years), during which the wine does not show its best.
The tool below will show you what phase your wine is currently in.
Select your wine :
- Young wines (normally between 1 and 5 years, according to the estate and vintage). When wine is young, its bouquet comes primarily from the grape variety (fruity, floral aromas etc.) and, to a lesser extent, from fermentation (banana aromas), and barrel aging (oak, spice, etc.).
- Wines at their peak (normally between 5 and 30 years, according to the estate and vintage). At this stage, wine loses some of its secondary aromas linked to barrel aging and increases in complexity thanks to the development of “tertiary” aromas (truffle, cedar wood, etc.). One can even detect nuances of terroir (minerals) in the best wines.
- Wines past their peak (normally between 10 and 30 years, according to the estate and vintage). During this phase, the wine gradually begins to decline, until it ends up losing all substance.