Salut/Hi Cygnus,

le/on Sun, 27 Feb 2005 01:11:48 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

>Hi Everyone,
>
>I don't think I've posted in this group before, but enjoying reading it
>quite a bit. I was surprised to read the post below that a 30 year old
>Riesling could not only be good, but in this case great. I thought white
>wines were usually consumed young - is that true most of the time?

Many more white wines can be drunk with some bottle age than you might
think. It's a common truism that red wines need age and white wines don't.
Like all truisms, there is a basis of fact.

OK. As a general rule, sweet wines not only live a long time, but many,
especially those whose sweetness comes from "Noble Rot" (aka botrytis),
improve dramatically. No, let's be more precise. They _change_ dramatically,
losing fresh fruitiness, and gaining depth and complexity. Young sweet
botrytised wines are so delicious that it is unfair only to say that they
_improve_.

Sweet white wines whose sweetness comes about because the grapes are dried
by letting them hang on the vine a long time, or because the wine maker has
stopped their fermentation by adding alcohol, are less imporoved by age, in
general. (In reds of that type, don't forget port).

Amongst European dry whites, some demand aging, notably the classic whites
made from Chardonnay in Burgundy, and the wines made from the Chenin Blanc
on the Loire and the great Rhine, Mosel, Saar and Ruwer wines. Lesser wines
can take more aging than you might think, but may not necessarily be
improved by it. I think it's true to say that Italian whites resist aging
less well as they lose the fresh attractiveness they have when young,
without gaining much complexity. But I'd suggest that even from Italy there
are VERY few wines which won't keep a couple of years.

>Thanks for educating me =)

Hope the above continues the process.

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
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