How long does wine keep
Published September 13, 2026 · 3 min read
Orders of magnitude by colour and style, and the three questions to ask before deciding a bottle is one to lay down.
There is no general answer, but there are useful orders of magnitude. The figures below assume decent storage: around 12 °C, away from light, without sharp swings. In a heated flat, halve them.
By colour and style
Light dry whites — Muscadet, pinot grigio, entry-level whites generally: one to three years. They are made for their fruit, and fruit does not last.
Dry whites for ageing — fine white Burgundy, good riesling, dry Loire chenin, some Rhône whites: five to fifteen years, sometimes more. Acidity carries the ageing, not oak.
Rosés: one to two years, with rare exceptions. A three-year-old rosé is not dangerous, just tired.
Light reds — generic Beaujolais, entry-level pinot, everyday reds: two to four years.
Medium-structured reds — Beaujolais crus, Côtes-du-Rhône Villages, Chianti Classico, Rioja crianza: five to ten years.
Reds for laying down — Bordeaux classed growths, Burgundy grands crus, Barolo, Rioja gran reserva, Châteauneuf-du-Pape: ten to thirty years depending on vintage and producer.
Sweet wines — Sauternes, Tokaji, late harvest: ten to fifty years. Sugar and acidity are two preservatives working together.
Fortified wines — vintage port, Madeira, Banyuls: fifteen years to more than a century for Madeira. These are the most durable wines that exist.
The three questions that decide
Before putting a bottle away for ten years, ask these three, in this order.
1. Is there structure to wait for? A wine that ages has either firm tannin, bright acidity, or sugar. A soft, low-acid, tannin-free wine has nothing to carry it: it will not improve, it will fade.
2. Is the fruit concentrated enough? Evolution consumes fruit. A wine already thin at three will be hollow at ten. Concentration is not power: a light wine can be very concentrated.
3. Do my conditions allow it? This is the question people skip, and it is the one that decides. Fifteen years in a cupboard at 20 °C does not exist. Better to accept a warm cellar and drink at seven than to aim for twenty and open vinegar.
The "wine for laying down" trap
The phrase is commercial as much as oenological. It describes a capacity, not an obligation: a wine that can be laid down is not a wine that must be. Many bottles described that way are already very good at five years, and waiting twenty is a matter of discipline rather than taste.
The only way to settle it is to open one. If you own a single bottle, the question does not arise: drink it when you feel like it, within the sensible range for its style.
What to remember
- Orders of magnitude follow style, not price.
- Structure, concentration and storage decide, in that order.
- "Wine for laying down" means "can be kept", never "must be kept".
- A warm cellar halves every figure here, without exception.
Frequently asked questions
- Do all great wines keep for a long time?
- No. Quality and ageing potential are two different things. An excellent early-picked Loire white can be superb and best drunk within three years; a mediocre but tannic wine can last fifteen without ever becoming interesting.
- Does a screwcap wine keep less well?
- No. A screwcap lets through very little oxygen, and far more consistently than natural cork. It suits medium-term ageing perfectly and removes the risk of cork taint. For very long ageing the evidence is still thin, modern closures being only about thirty years old.
- Does bottle size make a difference?
- Yes, a clear one. The ratio of wine to the air under the closure is more favourable in a magnum, so the wine evolves more slowly there. A half-bottle ages faster, and a drinking window worked out for a 75 cl bottle is too long for it.