Properly aged wine can be fantastic—complex, nuanced and supple on the palate. But how can you tell if a wine has been aged properly, or needs to be consumed soon, without opening the bottle? Being able to do that is handy in your own cellar. It’s vital when buying an aged wine from a reseller or fellow collector.

You can never be absolutely sure about a bottle before opening it. However, there are seven simple things you can do which will help you evaluate an aged wine.

Check the Ullage

Ullage is the gap between the surface of the wine and the bottom of the cork in an upright bottle. When a wine is first released, there is usually no visible ullage. Any gap is hidden by the capsule.

As a bottle ages, the amount of ullage will increase. Wine evaporates through the closure. Under ideal conditions, this occurs slowly. Even so, after 20 or more years, ullage may be very noticeable. Wines closed with screw caps or glass stoppers should evaporate much more slowly than with other closures. 

The bottle to the right is a 1978 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve I opened in 2011. Despite being 33 years old, ullage was still above the shoulder. That suggests good storage conditions.

In poor conditions, the ullage can expand quickly. There are three main reasons this occurs. When the storage temperature is too high and/or the humidity too low, evaporation accelerates. If a wine gets very warm, perhaps in the trunk of a car, it can expand and seep out around the cork. If the closure, or the closure’s seal, is bad, evaporation and/or leaking can occur.

Excessive ullage can mean the wine is not pristine. It may simply have aged more rapidly than expected. Or it could be oxidized, cooked, or both.

Substantial ullage in an aged wine you own tells you to drink up. In a wine you are looking to buy, premature ullage tells you to walk away. Penfolds has a very useful ullage measuring scale.

Consider the Age, Variety, Region, Producer

Not every wine is suitable for aging. Most are not. Is the wine of a variety that has potential to improve with age, such as Cabernet Sauvignon? Or is it a variety that’s better when young and fresh, such as Moscato? How old is the wine? See my guide to aging potential by variety here.

If the variety, or blend, is one that might be good at its current age, consider the region, producer, and general quality level next. Many regions and producers are known for the aging capacity of their wines. But, even top producers from great regions produce some wines which are intended for early consumption.

Consider the Vintage

High-quality red wines from regions such as Bordeaux and Barolo are usually expected to age well. Not every vintage produces wines that can achieve a region’s maximum potential though. Cold or rainy vintages may result in wines that don’t have enough rich fruit to last. Excessively warm years can produce wines too low in acid. 

Some producers whose customers care about aging offer suggested drinking windows for individual wines and vintages. Wine reviewers often do the same. You can also find less specific aging guidelines, by vintage, region and variety from some publications’ websites. (Here’s a link to those at Wine Spectator.) Bear in mind these drinking windows are always estimates. The actual results for a particular bottle will depend on many factors, especially storage conditions.

Storage conditions 

Once you have reviewed ullage, the specific wine, and the vintage and determined that the wine could be in good shape, it’s time to consider the storage conditions. If you have owned the aged wine since it’s release, that’s easy. You know at what temperature, more or less, it was stored, if the wine got very got very hot, or was exposed to light for long periods. (Light and vibration can also age a wine prematurely.) If you are thinking about buying the wine, ask the seller about storage conditions. 

The cooler a wine is kept, the more slowly it ages. For many years, I kept my cellar at 50 degrees. As a result, I have many 20-year old wines that drink as if they were released three years ago. Storage temperatures above 60 degrees aren’t suitable for long-term aging. Temperatures above 70 degrees can accelerate aging. Temperatures above 90 degrees can ruin wines very quickly. If wine is kept too cold though—below 40 degrees or so—that can destroy some flavors and aromas.

Was the temperature constant? Frequent, fluctuating temperates of 10 degrees or more is even worse than a constant temperature that’s slightly too high.

Was the humidity in a normal range? If a storage area is very dry, corks may dry out and shrink. That leads to oxidized wines and/or greater ullage. If humidity is too high, corks may be affected by mold. High humidity can also damage labels with mold, mildew or foxing.

Label Condition

Next, consider the label. If you’re interested in reselling an aged wine or using it on an elegant occasion, you’ll want a label that looks good. But, even if you’re just drinking the bottle at home, it’s worth examining the label. If the owner says the wine was stored in pristine conditions, but the label is heavily weathered, moldy, or filthy, you ought to be suspicious and investigate further.

I took the photo above in 2011. The label shows very slight staining and an expected level of discoloration for a 46-year old, uncoated label, but is otherwise good in shape. This suggests the wine was stored carefully in a clean area with normal humidity.

Color

Another important sign of aging is color. As red wine ages, the color turns from red to orange to brown. The color also becomes less saturated—easier to see through. As white wines age, they turn from light yellow, to gold, amber and then brown. And the wine gets more opaque. Examine the wine with a light shining from behind it. Do the wine’s color and saturation seem appropriate for it’s age? 

Of course, if the wine is in a colored bottle, the hue may be hard to gauge. It might help to compare the aged wine to a young bottle of the same wine. At the every least, you can evaluate saturation.

Closure condition

Condition of cork is very important. It can be hard to determine though, because the cork is often hidden by the capsule. If the cork is exposed, you can see if it’s moldy, stained by wine, soft, or loose. Mold is usually not a problem. The other conditions, especially a loose cork, are more serious.

If the cork is covered by the capsule, there are still things you can check. Look around the top and bottom of the capsule to see if there are signs wine has escaped. Make sure the cork has not pushed up above the glass at all. A pushed up cork suggests the wine got too hot at some point. Wine leakage may indicate the same, or a loose cork.

Screw caps are less prone to failure than corks. However, there is one thing to watch for. If the top of the cap is dented, that can create a gap for air to pass through. The result is prematurely oxidized wine. I would avoid buying bottles with dented caps.

A Note about Counterfeit Wines

I have not addressed the issue of counterfeiting at all here. It is a complex subject, well beyond the scope of this article. And, with the skill some counterfeiters have and the high prices some wines sell for, it’s best to have an expert evaluate the wine in person.

Copyright Fred Swan 2018. All rights reserved.