White wines

If our understanding of red wine maturation is incomplete, even less is known about the ageing process in white wines. Nevertheless, research has shown the importance of certain grape glycosides (and the hydrolysis of these constituents) during white wine ageing to the development of varietal aroma in the wine. White wines begin life in bottle with a much lower tally of phenolics, although those they have strongly influence colour and apparent astringency. White wines become browner with age, presumably because of the slow oxidation of their phenolic content.