A question I hear often.
Quick answer: no wine doesn’t go off, but it might not taste good.
It will be safe to drink, as in: it will not make you ill. The alcohol combined with natural acidity of wines create an environment unsuitable for harmful organisms to grow.
Fermented drinks (Wine and Beer) and Boiled drinks (Tea/Coffee) were a common preference in medieval times to normal tap water due to these qualities. As such, wine does not have a “use by” date on it.
Whether it is enjoyable to drink is a completely different question.
Rule of thumb 1: low quality wine doesn’t become good wine with age. Low quality will stay low quality or even get worse over time.
However, good wine becomes better, or even an amazing wine, with maturation in the bottle. But how do you know a good wine?
That depends on a host of quality factors that are either hard to know, or require a certain level of wine education to correctly piece together. This is looking at things like the wine style, the variety, the region, winemakers reputation, winemaking process, quality level of the wine within a portfolio, grape quality, vintage conditions, storage and packaging up to the point that you have it in your hands.
Rule of thumb 2: If you are looking at wines to set aside to drink in 10+ years time, expect to be looking at the $40AUD+ prices from a reputable producer in the shop. Price is the most basic indicator as market forces will generally not allow winemakers to charge higher prices if the juice doesn’t stack up.
That said: even good wines can spoil if the are mistreated along their journey. Extended time in a hot cupboard or in sunlight, faulty dried cork, cork (TCA bacterial) taint to start with are just a few things that could lead even great wines to diminish over time.
The best, and only, test for any wine regardless of quality level is simple. This test is also one of the great mysterious pleasures you can have with wine of any age or pedigree: simply open it and try!
- WINEDUCATION - 