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Maybe, but more often maybe not, because for the average wine buyer there are just too many things to consider to assure that in a few years that wine will be better.

Generally, Washington and other Pacific Northwest wines are ready to drink the moment you take them from the winery or the store shelf.

We are known for our fruit-forward wines, most of which can be kept for a few years without losing any quality. Notice I said without losing any quality, not gaining quality.

There is nothing finer than an older wine that has developed in the bottle and aged to sublime perfection, but it doesn't happen too often. And in some cases when you go to open one that you have laid down for a few years, it's already starting to deteriorate.

Some winemakers purposely make wine for aging with the tannins, acids and fruit balance to pull it off. However, the average consumer probably doesn't have the knowledge to determine which wine is better for aging and which is not.

Generally, Cabernet Sauvignons age the best of the red wines, followed by Merlot, Syrah and Pinot noir. White wines that can age are certain Rieslings, Semillon and perhaps a well-made chardonnay, but watch out here.

Jancis Robinson's The Oxford Companion to Wines lists the following table of agings in general terms: Cabernet Sauvignon can age from four to 20 years; Merlot from two to 10; Pinot noir from two to eight; Syrah four to 16; Riesling two to 30; and chardonnay two to six. She doesn't mention Semillon, but that can age from 2 to 10 years easily.

Remember, it is a bad gamble to believe that a wine will get better with aging.

What about the cellaring? The perfect conditions are in a cellar or storage where the humidity is controlled, the temperature hovers between a constant 55 and 60 degrees, it's dark and there are no vibrations. Vibration, especially on top of a refrigerator, can shake up a wine and shorten its self life a great deal, as can harsh light.

So what's the average consumer to do?

First, store your wines in a closet, a crawl space is better and a basement is best, and hope the temperature doesn't get much above 72 degrees. Hot temperatures can ruin a wine quickly. The worst place to store wine, unless it's in a climate-controlled container, is in the kitchen!

There are many manufactured wine storage containers from room size to the size of a small refrigerator that can hold 24 to 2,400 bottles, but these can cost anywhere from $500 to $5,000. Most of us can't afford this cost on top of the wine's cost.

Second, ask the wine maker just how long you should store it, not necessarily to make it get better but to make sure it doesn't start to deteriorate.

Then there is the tried and true method of buying a case and opening a bottle every now and then to see how it's doing. If it seems to be reaching its peak or starting to go down hill, you can drink it up.

But what about the average buyer who probably can afford only one $50 bottle at a time? When does this person open the bottle?

I know from personal experience that I have purchased perfectly good, sometimes great, wines that became of lesser quality because I forgot I had them and left them in the cellar too long.

Generally, I leave the aging to perfection stuff up to those people who have quality wine cellars and enough wines to sample to keep on top of the results. Most of the wines in my cellar are consumed within days after I purchase them, with probably only about 20 percent going into my inner basement cellar for a few years longer.

I do periodically poke around in that cellar to weed out the really older wines, and occasionally find some 15- to 20-year-olds. Most of the time I am not too disappointed. I rarely get lucky by having a wine develop wonderful flavors and bouquet.

When that happens, it's nirvana, but it's chancy.  

Bob Woehler has been writing about grapes and wines of the Pacific Northwest since 1978. His columns appear twice monthly in the Tri-City Herald in Tri-Cities, Wash. and in Wine Press Northwest.

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