Wine Storage: How long is too long?

[ctiglao]

I am curious to know how long certain wines can be stored. A wine's ultimate death is turning into vinegar...that being said, a breakdown of different wines and optimal storage years would be great! Also, after how many years do wines "turn bad"
(i.e. wine = vinegar) Thanks!

[Thomas]

Sorry, but there is no answer to your question. Each wine has its own life span, and anyone who tells you the date of that span is purely guessing.

In general, rich, bold wines live longer than light, fruity ones. Also, vintages change from year to year, according to the whims of nature. Each vintage offers potential or lack of potential longevity.

An improperly stored wine will age and go to vinegar faster than a properly stored one, but even this definite statement cannot be quantified with dates.

Tasting is the definitive measure.

[Jerry D Mead]

Two good rules on longevity...drink all White Zinfandel as young as possible...and all Port as old as possible!

That's a bit of an attempt at humor...Foodie's right.

Some sort of general guidance is that Cabernet Sauvignons tend to age longer than Pinot Noirs.

Most white wines (there are exceptions...many of them) are best in the first three years of their lives.

And the turning to vinegar thing is kind of a myth too...In 35 years of professional tasting most of the over the hill bottles I've tasted went bad but not usually vinegary...they usually became tired, flabby (acid-tannin structure broke down), oxidized (metallic kind of tastes), lacking in fruit, etc.

Time and experience are the best teachers. When you find a wine (especially reds) that you really like...buy a case...open a bottle every six months or so...when it either gets so good you can't stand it, or seems not quite as good as it was the last time you tasted it...drink up the rest as soon as possible.

JDM