How long can Bordeaux age?

From 2 years to 50, by appellation

The ranges are the CIVB (opens in a new tab)’s, by appellation, except the 2 rows that name their source. They are broad because every appellation holds estates of every ambition.

The table runs from 2 years to 50.

Plain Bordeaux is made to drink young, and its 4 years are a ceiling, not a target. The Crus Bourgeois have no figure of their own; they are Médoc wines and sit inside the Médoc’s 5 to 30 years.

The grander the wine, the longer the wait

Jancis Robinson, the British wine writer, holds that red Bordeaux of the better sort should be ready to open at about 10 years. In 2009 she advised waiting another 3 or 4 years for the lesser classified growths of 2004, and 5 or 6 for the grander ones. Even many of the grander 2001s were already giving great pleasure at 8. The vintage moves the window as much as the rank does.

At the top, Château Latour stopped selling its wine young, while still in barrel (en primeur), after the 2011 vintage. Since then it has released each vintage when it judges the wine ready to begin drinking. It released its 2012 grand vin, its top wine, in May 2020, and its president, Frédéric Engerer, said 8 years was still very young for Latour.

Second wines are built to open sooner. In that same release Latour sent out Les Forts de Latour 2014 at 6 years and its third wine, Le Pauillac (opens in a new tab) de Château Latour 2015, at 5. Three wines from one estate in one release, and the lesser the wine, the younger it went out.

When age becomes risk

Stephen Brook, the Decanter writer, puts the legitimate drinking window anywhere from youth to 20 years, a matter of taste. After 30 years the risk rises significantly, and at 40 or 50 the chance of a faulty bottle, however great the estate or the vintage, is far greater.

Storage is the other half of it: a steady 10 to 13 °C (50 to 55 °F), 70 to 75% humidity, and darkness.

Bottle size moves the window too. A magnum ages more slowly than a standard bottle, and a half bottle faster, so the ranges above assume the usual 75 cl.

What changes in the glass

In red Bordeaux, the youthful purple turns garnet. Primary fruit retreats and tertiary notes come forward: undergrowth, cedar, then leather and game. Oak, acidity, fruit, and tannin knit together, and the texture turns silky.

Sauternes darkens with time toward amber, and its aromas grow more complex. The lighter wines, made to drink early, show citrus, white peach, and acacia flower; the golden ones, candied and dried fruit.

A range is not a promise for a bottle. The vintage, the estate, and the cellar all move it.