When people talk about wine appreciation, they usually talk about the obvious elements: red or white, region and country, and taste. But while all of these are part of the magic that makes a bottle of wine, they are not the most important qualities. The award for most influential feature actually goes to time. In every aspect of making and drinking wine - from growing grapes to decanting a bottle - time has the power to change the body, structure, taste and quality of both the best and the worst wines, in several months or after 200 years.
When looking at Old World and New World wines, time comes into play at the very heart of the issue with seasons. The New World is a sunnier, warmer place - think South America, California and Australia, for instance. And, although autumn and winter may not be the best seasons to visit the Old World, France, Italy and Germany have cooler climates that allow grapes more time on the vine to develop colour and flavour.
Veraison - the process of grape ripening on the vine - generally takes about six weeks to reach 100 per cent when all the berries have changed colour. This gives winemakers time to plan the vintage and the consumer's enjoyment of the blend.
While time can be a winemaker's best friend or worst enemy, it is one of the most important fundamentals of wine making. It is also the difference between New World wines that are higher in alcohol content and richer in body, but do not display the finesse of flavour and elegance of top Old World vintages.
Maturation is also a factor of time and the most significant determinant of a wine's depth of character. For red wines especially, but also in the case of champagnes and white Burgundies, how long a wine spends in a barrel or oak cask will dictate the fermentation and oak levels. Want more oak? Find a wine that has been aged for longer. Want something fresher? Choose a wine that was bottled at the point of freshness just after fermentation.
Case in point: white wines such as Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier generally do not spend much time in the cask. They are bottled immediately after fermentation and sit for only a few months before being released to the market. Comparatively, some of the great Riojas from Spain, or sherry and port from Portugal, have a character that is a result of time alone, for the longer a wine sits in the cask, the more stable it is after bottling and the longer it will keep. Sherry can spend up to 40 years in a cask. It's worth the wait.