Starting a Cellar
Posted by Karyn Wismer on
Most wines on the market can be enjoyed within a few years of release. Kacaba wines, the Reserve & Founders Select tiers in particular, are designed with aging in mind. When determining whether a wine will age well or not you need to take 4 things into consideration; Acidity, Tannin, Alcohol Level & Residual Sugar.
Acidity
As a wine ages the acidity level within the wine lowers slowly over time and will become flat in flavour. Wines that start out with higher levels of acid tend to last longer in a cellar.
Tannin
Tannin in wine comes from contact with the seeds and skins of the grapes. It acts as a structural component within the wine, meaning wines with higher tannins typically age better then those with lower tannin structure. Even though higher tannins do help a wine to age well, there still needs to be balance within the wine. An unbalanced wine will never improve over time.
Alcohol Level
Alcohol is a volatile substance within wines that are not fortified. When looking to determine the viability of a wine for cellaring you want to aim for a ABV of around 13.5-14%.
Residual Sugar
The sugar content of wine is something that many people over look when determining whether a wine will cellar well, as there has been a focus on cellaring drier wines. As it turns out, some of the wines that age the longest are actually fairly sweet, think Riesling, Icewine & Port.
Anyone interested in starting to build a wine collection should experience some older wine before starting to collect and store wine. Many people beleive that wine gets better with age, that's truly a matter of opinion. As wine ages the profile of the wine drastically changes, meaning its not better just different.