Wine-making has seen enormous strides in the last three decades, with the process and chemistry becoming well understood. The vineyard too has been the scene of great advances. But the cellar— the whole span from vat to bottle to glass — is still an area of some mystery. Scientists are only now really coming to grips with the ageing, or maturing, process. That oak casks affect the taste of wine matured in them, and that some oak casks are better than others, has been known for centuries — but we are only beginning to discover just why. We are starting to understand how different wines react in varying ways to greater or lesser degrees of ageing. Even the process of bottle-ageing, perhaps the final mystery, is giving up some of its secrets.

The elevage — the "bringing up", or maturing — of a wine can make as much difference to its final quality as any other stage in its making. Much can go wrong: many of the poor wines of previous generations were ruined by dirty casks and inadequate cellar care. Now that the biochemistry of wine is better understood, there is no longer any need for this spoilage to occur — except through bad management. Maturing involves intervention: some perfectly natural products of winemaking, inevitably derived from chemical and microbiological reactions, must be removed or inhibited if the wine is to survive in bottle. The chateau or winery, or the merchant who "brings up" the young wine, puts it through a series of processes to clarify and stabilize the wine, to soften its rough edges and to allow it to improve. This is a gentle metamorphosis: time acting on wine. The container the wine ages in can add to the process, as with new oak casks; or be neutral, if of steel, glass or old wood. The maturing process takes in the stages whereby the wine trade handles the wine on its way to our tables. The complex and changing world of wine offers opportunities to buy wine direct from the producer. When buying from further down the chain, there are factors that can badly harm wine and which buyers should guard against. Wine in bottle is a fragile thing. The investment of time and trouble that a bottle of fine wine represents must be respected.Wine-making has seen enormous strides in the last three decades, with the process and chemistry becoming well understood. The vineyard too has been the scene of great advances. But the cellar— the whole span from vat to bottle to glass — is still an area of some mystery. Scientists are only now really coming to grips with the ageing, or maturing, process. That oak casks affect the taste of wine matured in them, and that some oak casks are better than others, has been known for centuries — but we are only beginning to discover just why. We are starting to understand how different wines react in varying ways to greater or lesser degrees of ageing. Even the process of bottle-ageing, perhaps the final mystery, is giving up some of its secrets.

The elevage — the "bringing up", or maturing — of a wine can make as much difference to its final quality as any other stage in its making. Much can go wrong: many of the poor wines of previous generations were ruined by dirty casks and inadequate cellar care. Now that the biochemistry of wine is better understood, there is no longer any need for this spoilage to occur — except through bad management. Maturing involves intervention: some perfectly natural products of winemaking, inevitably derived from chemical and microbiological reactions, must be removed or inhibited if the wine is to survive in bottle. The chateau or winery, or the merchant who "brings up" the young wine, puts it through a series of processes to clarify and stabilize the wine, to soften its rough edges and to allow it to improve. This is a gentle metamorphosis: time acting on wine. The container the wine ages in can add to the process, as with new oak casks; or be neutral, if of steel, glass or old wood. The maturing process takes in the stages whereby the wine trade handles the wine on its way to our tables. The complex and changing world of wine offers opportunities to buy wine direct from the producer. When buying from further down the chain, there are factors that can badly harm wine and which buyers should guard against. Wine in bottle is a fragile thing. The investment of time and trouble that a bottle of fine wine represents must be respected.