When To Drink Your Wine

There are a few actions that you can take to determine if you should drink your wine now or hold it. 

1. 95% Rule
• 95% of wine has only a 5 year life
• 0.2% of wine has life beyond 10 years 
• Usually only red wines and sometimes white Burgundies 
2. Tannin Indication
• If you have the opportunity to sample wines before purchasing, or if you have multiple bottles of the same wine, testing the maturation of tannins helps give an indication of whether or not the wine is ready to be enjoyed. 
• What are tannins?
• Tannins have no taste but are tactile sensations. Common descriptions of tannins include: the feeling of your teeth sticking to your gums and the feeling of a velvety mouth.
• Tannins come from two sources:
• Skins, stems, and seeds of grapes
• Oak barrels (wood tannins)
• When you are tasting the wine, think about when you start to sense the tannins of the wine. If the tannins attack early on the tongue then hold the wine. If the tannins attack late on the tongue then your wine is ready to drink.