Few People Age Their Wine

  About 90% of wine purchased retail is consumed within a couple of weeks. Usually it's consumed that same day. 

 The current wine culture says wine should be ready to drink on release. The trick with many premium wines is to also give it aging potential. Some wines will get better with age, others will get worse. The varietal makes the biggest difference, but winemaking and even the weather during the grapes' growing season make a difference. 

 Even the big boys in Bordeaux, the home of the original age for 20+ years wines, realize fewer consumers are going to sit on their wines for decades. I suppose in the "old days" when most premium wine buyers were "serious" collectors, you could release a wine that was tight and tannic and expect the buyer to patiently wait for the right time.

  There are still quite a few people that believe the best wine are meant to age a decade or two or three. There is sort of an unwritten rule that any fine (aka expensive) wine should be able to age at least a few years. Yes, even chardonnay and pinot noir.

Many have gone to a style of winemaking giving you softer tannins and, in general, softer wines on release. 

  Is it time for more wineries to hold back certain wines and do the aging for the consumer (at a price, of course)? The winery might not age individual bottles, but could do it in tanks or concrete eggs, maybe.