Yukari! Welcome to the site.

Ageability is the same as "callarable" or "lay down" or "will age" etc. Basically, it talks about whether the wine will get better over time, of it the wine should simply be drunk now.

Hope that helps.

Hi Yukari! Welcome to Snooth! You've come to the right place to ask questions about wine. The people here are knowledgeable, friendly and will not make you feel silly for asking a question.

Hey John,

That is the spirit!

All for wine and wine for all!

There are several factor that determine weather a wine will improve with ageing. One of the fundamental elements of an ageable wine is balance. The balance between the structural elements, tannins and acids, the alcohol and the fruit is fundamental to a wines ability to improve in the bottle since that is really what we are talking about.

Sure there are exceptions, old Califonia Petit Sirahs, 1978 Barolo, 1975 Bordeaux, even California Cabs like the Dunn Howell Mountain and wines from Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards appeared out of balance due to their impenetrable wall of tannins. Yet these wines had an inherent harmony that took years to be revealed but when the tannins finally melted away what was left was beautiful.

Two elements in modern winemaking have had distinct and adverse effects on the agebility of wine and both stem from the physiological ripeness phenomenon that has pushed winemakers to harvest later. As sugars accumulate in grapes, and the potential alcohol correspondingly increases, acidity decreases.

By harvesting very late many producers end up with high alcohol wines that are deficient in acidity. The alcohol is offset by the immense fruit of these wines while they are young but the acidity is frequently corrected, a fine art indeed that is difficult to master. The resulting wines taste fine in their youth, albeit are frequently big, bombastic fruit bombs. As the wines age and they lose the baby fat of their youth the elements that had been hidden by that lushness of fruit emerge. The wines may begin to taste hot due to the elevated alcohol and the acid that seemed in balance now is starkly obvious. The fundamental lack of balance is revealed.

This began to be a problem in the early to mid 80's in California in particular as a generation of UC Davis trained wine-makers began to practice their technically perfect art. Tons of wines from that time and later have turned out to be difficult to say the least. Big, at the time, producers like Inglenook and Buena Vista for example, who were trying to regain lost luster at the time produced wines that won great favor in the critical press but have turned out to be shrill and thin with cellaring. On the other hand producers whose wines were viewed less positively at the time, for example Burgess and the previously mention Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards, have evolved and developed into complex, dynamic wines that I am always thrilled to see at the table!

This is potentially a terribly long and complex subject and I've really only just skimmed the surface. I'll make sure I go into more depth in the future but just on a final note, if anyone ever finds a bottle or to of well stored Ridge, Caymus, Edmeades, Montevina, Rutherford Hill, etc. Zin from the late 70's to the early 80's I recommend you give it a try. Made in the days before physiological ripeness was the buzz-word and sold for immediate consumption at very reasonable prices these wines have surprisingly stood the test of time very well and remain as testament to how well a wine can age based simply on it's own raw material!

Depends how long you plan on putting it down for. It's a nice wine, about half Merlot which softens it up alot and gives it more immediate approachability but it should improve in the bottle for about 5 years and then hold for another 5 so it has at least a decade of potential.