The white stuff.

Don’t forget whites when stocking the cellar – they can be among the most rewarding of aged wines. Jane Parkinson runs through some key international whites that can shine with time in the cellar.

Romantic visions of dusty cellars crammed with long-forgotten bottles of expensive reds are what most people conjure when thinking about wines that need laying down. But ‘laying down’ is a much broader term these days. Not only can it mean holding on to a wine for anything from two years to 40 and beyond, it can also refer to red or white. The latter is often underrated as wines that can benefit from a stint in the wine cabinet or cellar before being cracked open.

Let’s kick off with the most famous white-wine-worth-ageing candidate, white Burgundy. It can be so deep and layered it needs significant time to eke out chardonnay’s full spectrum of potential complexities, Premier and Grand Cru Chablis included. Even so, many have been ‘spoilt’ over the years with over-zealous ageing, when often they are at their peak between 10 and 15 years of age.

Staying with chardonnay, the New World is also producing ageworthy white wines; Californian chardonnay from Sonoma, and Napa especially, is made at such a complex level they can require just as long to age as those from Europe to show their true worth.

Back in France, the Rhone Valley only really has one whitewine ageing candidate, but what a wine it is – Condrieu. This tiny appellation stretching just 14km in the north of the valley makes a king out of viognier. Its wines are such a mesmerising balance between perfumed elegance and rich weight that they definitely require time in the bottle to reveal their flavour and textural treasures.

Further north in Alsace, the wines might never be the punchiest, but the underlying subtlety of certain patches of terroir can generate wines of true beauty. They are hauntingly intricate and even more so with a few years on the clock. Hengst, for example, the region’s famously dry Grand Cru in the village of Wintzenheim, produces excellent gewurztraminer, riesling and pinot gris, all of which have a real capacity to age well.

Riesling can often out-age many other wines, red or white, thanks to its firm acid structure. And even though German riesling is unlikely to boost any investment portfolios in terms of cash rewards, they will reward patience with mesmerising intensity of flavour. Fifteen years is a good general guideline but the best have the ability to go far beyond that. They don’t necessarily have to be sweet either, but it does help, as sweet white wine has two secret ageing weapons up its sleeve: acidity and sugar. Both can preserve a wine for far longer than their dry white counterparts, no matter the grape or region.

It’s hard to think of Champagne as an underdog, but in terms of its ageing reputation, it’s rarely given the credit it deserves. Once again the key is acidity and Champagne has masses of it, so in most cases it can easily be laid down to enhance the extra toasty flavours, especially when it comes to vintage cuvees.

White wine will always be second to reds when it comes to wines that are worth ageing because reds are more valuable in the marketplace and also have more tannin to keep them in good shape. Even so, there are plenty of whites that offer enhanced drinking pleasure when they’re a little older. We just need to give them the opportunity to show us.