True or false, white wines don’t age as well as red wines.  I am not going to throw a trick question at you.  The answer is true, of course.  However, it is a common misconception that white wines don’t age at all.   I’d say 90% are best to drink upon immediate purchase.  If you’ve ever tried a wine which has gone past its prime, it’s not a pleasant taste.  White wine in particular when it reaches a certain age will oxidize – the reaction with oxygen in the bottle will cause the wine to decompose.  When a wine has fully oxidized, or turned, it will taste like rotten fruit and sludge.  Not even good for cooking. 

And yet, there is a group of whites which are reknowned “cellar dwellers,”  and this 10% of the white wine world is well worth finding, especially if you have a few bucks to spare.  You pretty much have to look for Old World wines.  Most (though not all) whites produced in the U.S., South America, Australia and New Zealand are made for near-term consumption. 

The most age-worthy of whites, in my humble opinion, is the Riesling.  The high sugar content in a typical German Riesling acts as a natural preservative to keep the wine tasting delicious for years, if not decades.  As a Riesling ages, it will turn darker in color and will take on fascinating subtleties on the palate – jammy fruit, mineral notes, white bread and spices.  Rieslings made especially for drinking with desserts are known as – do not adjust your set – beerenauslese,  trockenbeerenauslese and eiswein, are made from grapes harvested later than others.  The German Rieslings bearing these labels will be swooningly expensive, but will also be something you can hand down to your grandchildren to drink.  You can find them in smaller, narrower bottles at your local wine shop. 

Another group of whites known for holding their own over time are the French Chardonnays, also known as White Burgundies.  Not all Burgundies are equal, which is why if you want a bottle to keep over the next ten or twenty years, it will run you close to $150 for a bottle of Chardonnay!  The wine critics postulate that the reason for their aging potential has more to do with the skill and talent of the winemaker than the grape itself.  I also think that what makes a top quality Chardonnay last is partly genetics.  Already known as a tough, versatile grape, the cream of this crop simply have legendary staying power.  I myself have never had the privilege of trying a ten or twenty-year old Burgundy.  I have read about its properties, and it looks  jarringly amber in color and will take on some of the same taste nuances as its Pinot Noir cousin, such as earthiness and mushrooms.  Aged cheeses and savory pies are what people in the know match with it. 

Recently, I did open up a 10-year old bottle of White Bordeaux.  We all know of the aging potential of the red stuff.  The white wines from Bordeaux, typically made of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, are primarily dessert wines in nature.  Again, like Rieslings, the best dessert wines of Bordeaux can be cellared until the Tri-Centennial of the United States. 

However, I’m talking about the dry whites of Bordeaux, which some of the prestigious producers in the region produce depending on harvest and market conditions.  Recently, my wife bought me a 2000 “Ygrec” for my birthday.  Ygrec is a dry white wine made by Chateau D’Yquem, whose dessert wines are legendary.  Ygrec is relatively rare, and the chateau does not produce the wine regularly.  In fact, there were only four vintages of Ygrec made in the past decade.  It’s a blend of roughly equal parts Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.  Although this ten year-old bottle was starting to show some age, it had retained the character which makes the wines of this chateau so special.  On the nose, I found sea salt, jasmine, honey and olives.  The wine was distinctly gold in color.   On the tongue, there was a combination of sweetness, minerality and yeast.  The wine turned out to be a magnificent pairing with sauteed mushrooms and escargot.  The subtleties in the taste accentuated the earthiness in both of these dishes.

 Ultimately, however, aging your whites is a matter of personal preference and taste.  The few Rieslings I have in my own collection are likely not going to see their tenth, fifth, or even third birthday!

Ygrec d'Yquem is a dry version of the famous wine made by Chateau D'Yquem