During bottling the wine is exposed to some oxygen which causes a domino effect of chemical reactions with various components of the wine. The time it takes for the wine to settle down and have the oxygen fully dissolve and integrate with the wine is considered its period of "bottle shock".

During this time the wine could taste drastically different from how it did prior to bottling or how it will taste after the wine has settled.

While many modern bottling lines try to treat the wine as gently as possible and utilize inert gases to minimize the amount of oxygen exposure, all wine goes through some period of bottle shock.

The length of this period will vary with each individual wine. The transfer of off-flavours in the cork used to bottle a wine during prolonged aging can be detrimental to the quality of the bottle. The formation of cork taint is a complex process which may result from a wide range of factors ranging from the growing conditions of the cork oak, the processing of the cork into stoppers, or the molds growing on the cork itself.

During the course of aging, a wine may slip into a "dumb phase" where its aromas and flavors are very muted.

In Bordeaux this phase is called the age ingrat or "difficult age" and is likened to a teenager going through adolescence. The cause or length of time that this "dumb phase" will last is not yet fully understood and seems to vary from bottle to bottle. As red wine ages, the harsh tannins of its youth gradually give way to a softer mouthfeel.

An inky dark color will eventually lose its depth of color and begin to appear orange at the edges, and eventually turn brown. These changes occur due to the complex chemical reactions of the phenolic compounds of the wine. In processes that begin during fermentation and continue after bottling, these compounds bind together and aggregate.

Eventually these particles reach a certain size where they are too large to stay suspended in the solution and precipitate out. The presence of visible sediment in a bottle will usually indicate a mature wine. The resulting wine, with this loss of tannins and pigment, will have a paler color and taste softer, less astringent.

The sediment, while harmless, can have an unpleasant taste and is often separated from the wine by decanting. During the aging process, the perception of a wine's acidity may change even though the total measurable amount of acidity is more or less constant throughout a wine's life.

This is due to the esterification of the acids, combining with alcohols in complex array to form esters. In addition to making a wine taste less acidic, these esters introduce a range of possible aromas. Eventually the wine may age to a point where other components of the wine such as a tannins and fruit are less noticeable themselves, which will then bring back a heightened perception of wine acidity.

Other chemical processes that occur during aging include the hydrolysis of flavor precursors which detach themselves from glucose molecules and introduce new flavor notes in the older wine and aldehydes become oxidized.

The interaction of certain phenolics develops what is known as tertiary aromas which are different from the primary aromas that are derived from the grape and during fermentation. As a wine starts to mature, its bouquet will become more developed and multi-layered.

While a taster may be able to pick out a few fruit notes in a young wine, a more complex wine will have several distinct fruit, floral, earthy, mineral and oak derived notes. The lingering finish of a wine will lengthen. Eventually the wine will reach a point of maturity, when it is said to be at its "peak".

This is the point when the wine has the maximum amount of complexity, most pleasing mouthfeel and softening of tannins and has not yet started to decay. When this point will occur is not yet predictable and can vary from bottle to bottle. If a wine is aged for too long, it will start to descend into decrepitude where the fruit tastes hollow and weak while the wine's acidity becomes dominant.

The natural esterification that takes place in wines and other alcoholic beverages during the aging process is an example of acid-catalysed esterification. Over time, the acidity of the acetic acid and tannins in an aging wine will catalytically protonate other organic acids including acetic acid itself , encouraging ethanol to react as a nucleophile.

As a result, ethyl acetate — the ester of ethanol and acetic acid — is the most abundant ester in wines. Other combinations of organic alcohols such as phenol-containing compounds and organic acids lead to a variety of different esters in wines, contributing to their different flavours, smells and tastes.

Of course, when compared to sulfuric acid conditions, the acid conditions in a wine are mild, so yield is low often in tenths or hundredths of a percentage point by volume and take years for ester to accumulate. Developed by the British Master of Wine , Clive Coates , the principle states that a wine will remain at its peak or optimal drinking quality for a duration of time that is equal to the time of maturation required to reach its optimal quality.

During the aging of a wine certain flavors, aromas and textures appear and fade. Rather than developing and fading in unison , these traits each operate on a unique path and time line. The principle allows for the subjectivity of individual tastes because it follows the logic that positive traits that appeal to one particular wine taster will continue to persist along the principle's guideline while for another taster these traits might not be positive and therefore not applicable to the guideline.

Wine expert Tom Stevenson has noted that there is logic in Coates' principle and that he has yet to encounter an anomaly or wine that debunks it. An example of the principle in practice would be a wine that someone acquires when it is 9 years of age, but finds dull.

A year later the drinker finds this wine very pleasing in texture, aroma and mouthfeel. Under the Coates Law of Maturity the wine will continue to be drunk at an optimal maturation for that drinker until it has reached 20 years of age at which time those positive traits that the drinker perceives will start to fade.

There is a long history of using artificial means to try to accelerate the natural aging process. In Ancient Rome a smoke chamber known as a fumarium was used to enhance the flavor of wine through artificial aging. Amphorae were placed in the chamber, which was built on top of a heated hearth , in order to impart a smoky flavor in the wine that also seemed to sharpen the acidity.

The wine would sometimes come out of the fumarium with a paler color just like aged wine. In the production of Madeira and rancio wines, the wines are deliberately exposed to excessive temperatures to accelerate the maturation of the wine. Other techniques used to artificially age wine with inconclusive results on their effectiveness include shaking the wine, exposing it to radiation , magnetism or ultra-sonic waves.

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Download as PDF Printable version. Overview of the aging of wine. Main article: Storage of wine. Main article: Bottle-shock. Main article: Cork taint.

Jackson "Wine Science: Principles and Applications" Third Edition, pp. Other methods of wine aging include electric fields, ultrasonic waves, and gamma irradiation.

Studies proved that wine aged using these techniques took little time along with offering high-quality wines. The wood used in oak aging is from Europe. French oak is used as a winemaking tool to make the silky wine smooth. French oak makes it easy to transfer flavors evenly. Additionally, enhancing flavors leads to an increase in tannin content and intense aromas.

For big and robust red wines, winemakers use the American oak. This wood introduces big flavors such as coconut and vanilla, and it will, therefore, need big wines to match the characteristics.

Compared to the French oak, American oak is more porous, allowing oxygen to dissolve faster. Contrary to what many people think, concrete aging is not a new concept.

This is due to the increased experimental use. This made the development of complex flavors hard. However, concrete vats serve the purpose of preserving the flavor effectively.

It is an appropriate option for maintaining aromas and flavors, perfect for aging white wine. The stainless steel wine aging option is perfect for those who want to preserve the natural flavor of the wine.

Moreover, stainless steel is much easier to clean compared to concrete vats. It is also durable making it favorable for large scale production. At twenty, the yield begins to reduce but the quality of grapes increases. In the wine world, the lower the return means higher the quality. It is very logic; older vines produce grapes with a high concentration of flavor, while young vines will provide a high yield with a low concentration of flavor.

To simply put it, the terroir is a significant determinant of wine flavor acquired from a particular region.

For that unpleasant sensation, you can thank the wine's tannins, the most important of its phenolic compounds, at least where aging is concerned. Tannins love to bind to proteins which is why red wines, which are high in tannins, tend to go well with red meats.

When we drink wine that contains tannins, they bind to the proteins in our saliva, inhibiting saliva's ability to lubricate the mouth, and causing that puckering, astringent feeling. As a wine ages, its tannins slowly undergo polymerization, a reaction that binds them together in long chains.

Once bound together, tannins fall to the bottom of the bottle as sediment, lose their ability to bind with other compounds, and the aged wine loses its astringent qualities and starts to taste mellower.

So why not just leave the tannins out in the first place, and start with a product that is already "mellow"? Winemakers often take great care to do just that, by crushing grapes gently to limit the amount of tannins released from the skins, seeds, and stems: the so-called "bad" tannins that don't easily undergo polymerization.

But the "good" tannins that come from oak barrels, once aged and bonded together, give wine qualities connoisseurs term "supple" and "smooth.

Tannins also help preserve wine by preventing oxidation. Oxidation is both a wine's enemy and a wine's friend. When oxygen reacts with alcohol, it creates acetic acid, or vinegar.

Too many years in the cellar, and that fine Bordeaux could be composed of more vinegar than alcohol--not something typically desired to accompany a filet mignon.

Oxidation also alters the colors of wine. Just like a cut apple, wine will turn brown when it comes in contact with the air. Aged red wine is naturally brick-colored, aged white is golden-brown; but too-brown colors are undesirable. Just as a little lemon juice added to that cut apple keeps it from browning, wines with higher acidities tend to turn brown less rapidly, and so are better candidates for aging.

But exposure to oxygen isn't all bad. Oxygen helps the fruity flavors of a young wine fade and combine with the woodsy flavors from the barrel, creating something that is more "winey" than "fruity.

Wine is said to breathe through the cork, and it does, for the influx of oxygen through the cork's pores helps the wine mature. Wine purists denounce the newer synthetic corks and screw caps for just this reason.

The oxidation of tartaric acid, for example, creates some of the tertiary aromas that eventually form the kind of bouquet that wine connoisseurs will pay top dollar for. Decanting wines in a wine decanter encourages oxidation and can improve a young wine's flavor profile.

Modern custom wine cellars like this beautiful large custom wine cellar in Rancho Santa Fe, California are designed to support the ideal environment for storing wine. The wide variety of subtle reactions that take place as wine ages require very specific conditions to create an optimal product.

Wine experts have been able to quantify what the Romans knew to be true thousands of years ago: wines age best under cool conditions.

An 18° increase from the 55° baseline doubles the rate of chemical reactions in wine. But if chemical reactions age the wine, why not increase the temperature and get a decade's worth of flavor complexity in a few years?

Unfortunately, there are no such shortcuts. A temperature of 55° is the perfect environment for the chemical reactions that result in good wine. But it's too cold to allow other, undesirable reactions that can give a wine unwanted aromas.

Even a short exposure to extreme temperatures can trigger unwanted reactions and ruin the wine. Wine ages best at a temperature that is both cool and constant. Wine cellar cooling systems are designed to maintain that perfect temperature in your cellar or cabinet.

A too-humid environment will cause mold to form on the cork, possibly contaminating the wine. Not enough humidity, and the cork will dry out and crack.

A too-dry environment will also cause wine to rapidly evaporate from the bottle, creating a vacuum that sucks in oxygen-rich air. Too much oxidation, as we have seen, turns wine sour. Typically, installing a cooling unit reduces humidity, so if you are concerned about a too-dry aging environment you may wish to add a humidifier.

Exposure to too much ultraviolet UV light will cause the otherwise stable organic compounds in wine to degrade. These organic compounds contribute much to the finished product.

As we've seen, phenolic compounds and esters create taste, and tannins contribute to the wine's structure. The deterioration of these essential compounds will cause the wine to become flavorless.