In wine, age refers both to how old a wine is and to the act of maturing it deliberately, in barrel or bottle, to develop complexity. As a wine ages, primary fruit aromas give way to tertiary notes (leather, truffle, dried fruit, nuts), tannins soften and colours shift. Only a minority of wines improve with age; most are made for early drinking. The ideal window depends on grape, structure and vintage.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR COLLECTORS
Age is not automatically a virtue: a wine held past its peak fades and dries out. Collectors track each wine's drinking window and provenance, since poor storage ages wine prematurely.
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