Q: Aging Wine at High Altitudes?

Question from Marie: We’ve met a few times when I’ve visited friends in Napa. I’ve come to your wine school and have purchased several of your products. Our discussion came up when I told you that I’d opened a bottle of your Chardonnay 2 weeks after I returned to my home at 8400 feet elevation. The wine was very good. A second bottle of the same wine and batch was opened a few months later and was distinctively better. That brought up the question of whether the suggested shelf life might be longer at higher altitudes as there is less oxygen in the air.

I have two bottles of wine from Goosecross to compare, one to be tasted at the “best time” and the second to be tested about 6 months after the suggested best date. I will ask a few friends to rate the wine now and in 6 months.It’s time to test the first bottle so I wanted to ask if there is a “taste test check list” that you use to assess the characteristics of wines. Saying that the wine “tastes good” now and “tastes good” 6 months from now won’t really add anything to the understanding of how wines keep differently at altitude. I’ll be most happy to use any tasting tests and/ terms that you think are viable and/or are industry standards.

Answer: Hi, Marie! Thanks for writing!

As I expect you already know, there’s almost nothing written on this subject. It’s interesting, in fact, because as I was checking one of my favorite resources, Jancis Robinson, she mentioned that, while there’s endless science behind wine production, our information on wine storage and its behavior during that time is mainly based upon anecdotal evidence. What a sorry state of affairs! So, my hat’s off to you for trying to be analytical about this.

I saw this summary of some comments by Master Sommelier, Richard Betts, who has worked in Aspen:

• You decant a wine to let it breathe; this is very important in high altitudes.

• The lack of oxygen in high altitudes allows the wine to last longer.

I wish he’d been more specific. My suspicion is that if the difference in aging at high altitudes was significant, more would be written about it.

Regarding your question about differences to look for, you’re absolutely right – “better” is in the eye of the beholder and “best time” to drink is equally subjective. For those who prefer fruitiness, younger is better. As your Chardonnay continues to age, it will slowly give up its fruitiness and will take on more and more rich, toasty, caramelized character.

Taste check list:

Appearance: For whites, pale color is youthful, yellow and gold come with age.

Aroma: Fruit dominance is youthful; those richer, more caramelized characteristics come later. When the wine is tired, it begins to smell sherry-like.

Flavor: Fruitiness, again, is a youthful trait. Fruitiness shouldn’t disappear with age, but it shares the stage with nutty, soy and mineral character for Chardonnay. The flavors will be more complex and difficult to describe. Acidity and tannin (astringency) are signs of youth. Older Chardonnay will feel softer and rounder. If it was low in acidity to begin with it may feel “fat” and oily on the palate – it can become cloying (this sometimes happens with old California Chardonnay; I’m happy to say not so for Goosecross). If it’s completely washed out, it either wasn’t well made in the first place or is over the hill.

Aftertaste: Well-made wine should linger on the palate in all life stages. The older, richer wine may seem to linger more.

We have an article on our website with more detail on tasting techniques.

It would be interesting to do a comparison with a friend who lives at a low altitude. If you each purchased the same wine at the same time and place and then got together to compare your wines 6 months or a year later, you could see and taste first hand if the wines are aging at different rates (assuming both households have favorable/similar storage conditions).

I hope that helps! Have fun with your experiment, and we’d love to know the results! Cheers! Nancy