Tim Atkin’s guide to wines which benefit from cellaring

Most of these reds have high concentrations of tannins, phenols and colouring matter (known as anthocyanins), which help to keep the wine fresh and stable in its youth. As the liquid ages, so the colour gets paler and the tannins soften (a process known as polymerisation). The tannins fall out of the wine and, by doing so, deprive it of its first defence against gentle oxidation. Over time, the oxygen and the wine interact. As they do, the character of the fruit changes, going from what wine buffs call primary to secondary to tertiary. The mellow aromas and flavours of a mature wine are potentially much more complex than those of a young one. That’s why we wait for great wines to develop.

How long to wait before opening a bottle is partly down to personal taste, but there are what are known as ‘optimum drinking windows’ for most wine styles. Leave it too long and the wine will become brown and maderised; drink it too early and it will seem gawky and unfinished. As the American wine writer, Benjamin Wallace, puts it in his book, ‘The Billionaire’s Vinegar’: ‘Paradoxically, wine is improving even as it is being destroyed; time will kill a wine, but is also necessary to make it great.’ White wines that age well are rarer, but those that are fortified, have high levels of sweetness or high levels of acidity can develop well in bottle. The most ageworthy grape varieties are Chardonnay (especially from top sites in the Burgundian appellations of Chablis, Meursault and Chassagne- and Puligny-Montrachet), Riesling (mainly from Germany, but also from Australia, Alsace and Austria), Chenin Blanc (particularly from the Loire Valley) and Semillon (from Australia, but also as the main grape in Sauternes). I’d also include the fortified wines of Sherry and Madeira, both of which are made from white varieties and can age for a century or more, and Champagne (generally made from one white grape, Chardonnay and two red, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier). Some critics argue that only great wines evolve and develop in the bottle. I wouldn’t be that proscriptive – can’t an Albariño, a Sancerre or a Beaujolais be great? – but more often than not this is true. Great wines are wines that reveal themselves over time.