All wines have their life curve. When the oenologist makes the wine, he already thinks about its useful life: each wine profile has a predestined life.
Usually:
The reds: their range of evolution is very wide. What preserves the wine is the acidity and the tannins, therefore more acidic wines will have a longer shelf life and more tannic wines will mature more slowly. But these are general criteria, you must know each denomination of origin to know how they behave in the bottle.
- Young or vintage reds: useful life a couple of years.
- Reds with three months in barrel or semi-crianza: they can be consumed for three or four years.
- Crianza red wines mature for five years.
- Reserva reds: maturing for 8 years.
- Gran Reserva reds: they mature after 10 years.
These periods, counted from the vintage on the label, depend on the quality of the initial grapes and the production.
The whites: The young whites that come out before Christmas are short-lived wines. Its evolutions are fast and do not go beyond the summer. The whites of the year that go on the market at the beginning of January are not suitable for consumption for one or two years, depending on their production.
Rosés: traditional rosé wines can be consumed for a year after bottling. The degeneration of a rosé wine is very evident, because the color tends to turn orange. Modern rosés extend their shelf life up to two years or more.