Tasting Time
Thoughts on How to Age White Wines
by Holly Madrigal
While undertaking a renovation project in my 150-year-old house, I came upon some intact magazines from the 1950s, brittle, covered in dust, and wedged between the studs. I have long heard stories of mythical vintages and treasures having sat forgotten only to emerge through happenstance to delight the finder. The previous owners had told me a story of how, when they were working on this old Victorian, they had found a bottle of red wine within the joists. They decanted that bottle and said it was quite good. Some time later, the couple who had owned the place a generation before stopped by and inquired about the wine, hoping to retrieve it, but too late!
Somehow the tales of aging wine always involved reds, so imagine my surprise when I learned that some white wines improve and develop over the years. I recently was fortunate to taste a 2010 Russian River Bernalillo that had matured into a deep golden hue. The flavors were deep, toasted, and rounded, altogether different from a younger glass.
To learn more about this world of white wine, I spoke with Wendy Lamer of the Disco Ranch wine shop in Boonville. The amount of viticultural knowledge in this proprietor’s head is staggering. “Yes,” she says, “people can and do age white wine, but it needs to be the right kind.” According to Wendy, white wine varietals like a white Burgundy, Riesling, Premier Cru, or Gershon Mont Ruche will improve over time. The higher the quality of wine, the longer it can last. “You can taste these wines young, and they may be good, but when you wait and let the flavors develop they can become something greater,” she adds. Wendy explains that aging a wine is typically three years or more. Those who want to “lay wines down” like to set aside a case to drink later, after they have matured, for a minimum of five to eight years. Three to five years will start to be the drinking window, but if you can wait you will be rewarded. Wines like the Premier Cru can be aged for seven to ten years, and the Grand Cru les Mon Ruche or Tar Mon Ruche can go as long as twenty-four years.
Wendy states that the traits of single vintage and high acidity can aid a good wine in maturing well over time. To begin with, the wine needs to be balanced—meaning, equal aspects of acids and sugars. “If it is not balanced to start, it will not be good later,” she asserts, continuing, “Napa Chardonnays, for example, don’t really age that well because they are manipulated. Malolactic acid is added because it is so hot there. But Riesling, if it’s dry, can age for ten years. If it is an Auscultatia or Bernausclatia, it can go for twenty years. They begin to develop those coveted petroleum flavors and notes that you want.” According to Wendy, Semillon and White Bordeaux age quite well. And Rioja, because the acidity is so high, can age for seven to ten years. “These wines deepen to a golden color and develop almond notes while retaining that acid. In 1976 the Germans made some of the most spectacular wines ever. They still taste fresh and young in 2024,” she adds.
For my first attempt at aging white wine, Wendy recommends a 2023 Riesling from Read Holland. This local winemaker, Ashley Holland, has no showroom and crafts relatively small batches. Instead, she showcases her vintages at Disco Ranch. “I am drinking the 2019 right now,” says Wendy. “So when she gets ready to switch vintages I will buy her last thirty cases. Then when the new wines start coming out, I bring out the older cases which are then perfectly ready.
The little bit of age develops the richness of flavor. This year she was written up in Food & Wine magazine as one of the twenty-five winemakers to watch. Decanter magazine has Ashley Holland as one of the top ten Pinot Noir winemakers of the past year. “She is on fire,” Wendy explains.
With red wine, you are judging for an integrated mix of aspects: fruit, acid, and tannin ratio. In reds, the tannins help them age, but with white wines, it’s the acidity or residual sugars that time matures. “Chenin Blanc ages well,” Wendy notes, as she pours a small glass. “GW Lussier Chenin Blanc out of Green Valley, Miramar Torres, and Iron Horse get most of their fruit from there. Forty-two-year-old vines, and even in one year it will taste different. You will get lanolin and some beeswax if you can wait longer. We sold out of this 2019 so quickly because people just went crazy for it. Even in a year, it will become more complex, richer, and rounder on the palate.”
The concept of aging white wine is a bit more commonplace when thinking of wine with bubbles. Bottles of champagne from decades ago grace tables for many a special occasion. “Champagnes age extremely well, like twenty years, easy. When you hear that they discovered a shipwreck and found a carton of champagne which tastes so fantastic, it is because it ages so well over time,” comments Wendy. Roederer Estate in Anderson Valley recently hosted a Library Tasting where they uncorked bottles from a twenty- year-old L ‘Ermitage, an in-person demonstration of how champagne can age deliciously.
When selecting a bottle of champagne (or sparkling wine, if not made in France) Wendy points out all the information listed on the label. France has an AOC Appellation Controlle designation with strict rules and standards. It describes a level of excellence that is tightly regulated. Premier Cru and Grande Cru varieties come out of that designation. For example, you can only harvest a particular amount of fruit from a given vineyard. When picking a champagne to age, Wendy suggests choosing a single vintage, meaning a wine from one particular harvest year (many wines are multiple-vintage wines).
The wine label is required to provide some details, such as the types of grape or wine and the creation and disgorgement dates. “That label is something you want to focus on,” says Wendy, holding a bottle of Roederer Grand Cru. “So, this bottle is a 2016 base wine with a disgorgement date of 2021, meaning that it had that time on the cork, which brings out all the flavors of brioche. It has been on the lees for four years.” Brioche literally means bread. Toasty notes and bread flavors that you can smell and taste will develop in that time. “The magnums taste better than the 750ml because they are often stored longer and left to evolve ... real champagne geeks want magnums,” she adds.
The logistics of aging wine should not dissuade the novice buyer. On the West Coast, most homes do not have cellars. Serious wine enthusiasts may purchase a EuroCave wine cabinet, which is a wine-specific refrigerator made for ideal temperature and humidity. Wine storage lockers have also become popular over the past few years. You need to be able to store the bottles for the long-term where they can be undisturbed. For short-term storage, a closet can work, ideally tiled, cool, and with minimal vibration. Some amount of temperature control is a must. “When I lived in Georgia, everyone has basements because of tornadoes,” Wendy explains. “My basement garage had these hollow cylinder blocks that I thought were perfect for wine storage. When we got a tornado warning, the neighborhood showed up because, unbeknownst to me, it was the neighborhood gathering place. When we got to the basement, they said ‘No, these are for people to hide in during a storm!’” Wendy had to make way, moving her wine storage to fit all her neighbors. She reflects that Georgia has a 67% humidity and 55-degree temperature in the basement, perfect—if you could discount the tornado part.
The aging of wine is, in essence, a gift to your (or somebody else’s) future self. It involves a level of delayed gratification and optimism for the future. You can be sure that I placed my own bottle of red wine, last year’s vintage from Absentee Wines, within the walls for future residents of this home. And I will set aside four bottles—not within the walls of my house but rather within a dark closet—to be revealed, like a treasure hunt scheduled for 2036. Seeing as that date feels as theoretical as 2025 once did, it will be an experiment in mindful forgetting. We shall see what time—and taste—develops.
Disco Ranch
14025 Highway 128, Boonville
(707) 901-5002 | discoranch.com
Holly Madrigal is a Mendocino County maven who loves to share the delights of our region. She’s fortunate to enjoy her meaningful work as the director of the Leadership Mendocino program and takes great joy in publishing this magazine.
White wine photo by Anastasiia Rozumna courtesy of Unsplash. Wine bottles photo by Holly Madrigal.