QUESTION: What kind of wine should you age and what kind of wine can be enjoyed immediately? Most people won’t know that the oldest wines in the world are white. They generally can age better than reds, depending on the grape variety. The oldest wine I ever tasted was carbon dated to 1670, it was white and only 6% alcohol but the storage was responsible for its great condition, cut off from any form of light, buried for centuries in cold, damp London clay. The longest lived wines are Madeiras, most of which are made from white grape varieties. Some of the great old white Burgundies [Chardonnay] would be classified as some of the greatest wines in the world.

QUESTION: What is the best way to tell the difference between an OK wine and a good wine in the supermarket? Price is not always an indication and many times the ratings or reviews they put on the shelf are just to push that brand. This is a very difficult proposition, especially in a supermarket where the “wine person” can change from week to week. I would recommend trying to learn something specific about the wines you like and looking for similar qualities. For example, the back label may indicate an importer or distributor that you have noticed on a different bottle that you enjoyed.

QUESTION: HOW LONG SHOULD A WINE AGE? There is no clear answer to this . Some people simply don’t like or understand old wine. What is dead to one person is just coming into its prime to another. Some say “if you can taste the fruit in a wine, it isn’t ready for drinking”, others think “if you can’t taste the fruit, the wine is dead”. Old wine can be an acquired taste. If you buy a wine, such as Chateau Lafite, and you drink it early, you are wasting your money because a wine like that is completely designed to be at its best when it is several decades old. However, most wines don’t age well and should be drunk immediately. The standard reference book, on which wines can be aged, is “Michael Broadbent Vintage Wine” or his “Pocket Vintage Wine Companion”. A nice cellar should include wines that are ageing and some that are ready for immediate drinking. If you do not have sufficiently good conditions for ageing wine, you should not age it. You can buy aged wines and drink them immediately. - Bartholomew Broadbent , CEO of Broadbent Selections