A vintage chart will advise, say, that the 1998 Bordeaux will need several years of bottle aging after they arrive here in 2001.

LBV is intended to provide some of the experience of drinking a vintage port but without the need for lengthy bottle aging.

Being primarily Grenache does, however, mean that the lesser wines are not recommended for extended bottle aging.

It is claimed to improve a wine's tannins and to remove potential impurities, thus purportedly simulating the effects of natural bottle aging.

New Zealand wines are typically meant to be consumed young and will often maintain their green herbal flavors even with extended bottle aging.

But Professor Ashenfelter, a wine fancier since 1978, said he considered that approach "too smoky for wines that require bottle aging."

Yeast cells, which impart bubbles, aroma and flavor - in short, character - to Champagne, float free during long bottle aging.

These have more barrel and bottle aging.

They not only benefit from bottle aging, but require it.

An '86, still undergoing bottle aging, may be released in 1990.