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As a boy, I developed a fascination with some ancient, floridly ornamented Madeira bottles in my grandmother’s booze cupboard, assuming that the tawny liquid inside would be exquisite. Taking advantage of my grandmother’s absence at a Women’s Institute macramé workshop one afternoon, I sneaked in for a little snifter, only to find that what I thought would be ambrosial was so old it only tasted of dust and vinegar. A hard lesson, but one that stood me in good stead later in life, as downing a bottle of wine the moment it falls into my possession is something I’ve never developed scruples about.

Nonetheless, for everyone’s benefit, it’s worth re-stating here: most wines should not be kept long in the bottle. Left more than a year or so, the flavours of many become flat and musty, especially those of the pleasant but rather generic branded Australian varietal wines that keep this great country of ours running.

Only top quality wines are genuinely improved by ageing in the bottle, and even then, only particular grape varieties suit being held back. Good wines made with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot – the varieties that go into red Bordeaux - benefit well from at least a few years in the bottle as do Syrah (found in Côtes du Rhone wines, among many others) and Pinot Noir (found in both red Burgundy and Champagne). Other good agers include Nebbiolo (found in Chianti) and Tempranillo (the main ingredient of Rioja). As for the whites, the best bottles made with the ubiquitous Chardonnay improve with age, while a really good Riesling can stand up to 30 years in the bottle and only get better.

So what does ageing actually do for a wine? Well a well-aged red will have a softer, smoother finish to it, with the flavours smooching rather than jostling each other, and its fruitiness will be rather more muted. Whites will be similarly mellower and less bouncy, while the slow encroachment of oxidation will darken the liquid to a sun-kissed golden colour. But while drinking an aged wine that can stand being left is an unmitigated pleasure, knowing exactly when to pop the cork requires a certain knack. Leave a wine too long - a chardonnay, for example, will lose much of it’s lustre after six years - and its fruit flavours will be all but gone. This is all the more reason to do what I’m currently trying to do myself: get to know a good vintner who’ll be able to advise you as to a bottle’s ideal drinking age, and who won’t look askance when you ask an apparently stupid question.

Feargus O'Sullivan is a freelance journalist