Have you ever bought a bottle of wine and put it away in your cellar (or closet) only to forget about it for several years? When you popped its cork and poured a glass, was it a rich amber colour with luscious flavours of caramel and dried apples? If so, you got lucky.

Why do some wines continue to improve over decades while others deteriorate after a few years? Among the most important factors, two of them are: 1) the wine has exceptional flavour concentration and 2) the four basic components that make up a wine —acid, sugar, alcohol, and tannins (in the case of red wines)—are present in sufficient quantities and are well-balanced.

As a fine wine ages, the proportion of these four basic components remains stable, but how they interact with each other changes. With more time in the bottle, the wine will start to develop notes called tertiary flavours. This means that the fresh and simple primary fruit flavours found in the young wine are replaced with flavours reminiscent of dried fruit. And flavours like honey and herbs, previously hidden by the primary fruit, will also start to reveal themselves.

Domaine des Baumard Clos du Papillon Savennières 2014 was made in the Loire region of France. Savennières wines are made from top-quality Chenin Blanc grapes capable of producing wines with the structure and concentration that allows them to gracefully age and evolve for decades. This one is already 8 years old. Would you open it now or would you wait and see what it will become?