As you get older, here’s how to embrace your changing tastes in wine

Just like with food, our wine palettes can evolve over time, writes Rosamund Hall. If you’ve suddenly found yourself going from preferring a sweet white to a full-bodied red, here’s how to keep up with your own tastebuds

Is it inevitable that we all become sophisticated red wine drinkers wearing smoking jackets and sitting in wingback armchairs as we age? (Getty)

What did you love the taste of that you now can’t stand? My eclectic – and probably not exhaustive – list includes: bananas (I call them the devil’s appendage), sugar in hot drinks (so gross), Spam (yes, really), Haribo sweets, and oysters (I know, I should be more sophisticated).

And then there’s the list of things I used to hate but now love (the most alarming of which is tomatoes – I’d be bereft without them). But other than sharing my foibles and quirks with you, it hopefully shows that our tastes change significantly over the course of our lifetimes – so why should our wine preferences be any different?

When I first started drinking, I loved a wine called liebfraumilch, a semi-sweet white wine that has to be made of at least 70 per cent of the grapes riesling, sylvaner, müller-thurgau or kerner. I think my late-teenage self thought I was pretty refined (I wasn’t). And it seems I was not unique or special – it turns out that most wine drinkers follow a fairly predictable pattern over a lifetime of drinking.

Academics from Sonoma State University led by Dr Liz Thach, MW wanted to research the long-held belief that as consumers age, their taste preferences change over time. The primary question they asked was: “Have your wine preferences changed since you first started drinking wine?”.

The results showed that 69 per cent of the respondents’ wine preferences had changed over time, but 31 per cent of the sample reported no change at all. As the cohort spanned a broad range of ages, you could suppose that those who replied “unchanged” were those who had been drinking for a shorter time, but the results showed that this wasn’t the case.

In fact, those whose tastes were unchanged remained steadfastly committed to sweet and semi-sweet wines. The largest change was a preference for dry red wine – it started at a lowly 15 per cent in the beginning, and increased to a strong 37 per cent.

So, is it inevitable that we all become sophisticated red wine drinkers wearing smoking jackets and sitting in wingback armchairs as we age? Thach developed a “wine palate life cycle wheel” that suggests we move through four phases in our wine-drinking life: stage one of “semi-sweet white and rosé”; stage two of “softer reds and dry white whites and rosé’s”; stage three of “bolder reds and unique whites”; and finally stage four, “distinctive wines”. This certainly has some legs, but we rarely fit into boxes as humans.

But why are so many of us adamant that we only like a particular wine, and then just stick to that one? There are over 10,000 grape varieties cultivated in the world, coupled with the fact that we’re born with over 10,000 taste buds – it all adds up to meaning that you don’t just have to remain loyal to pinot grigio or malbec just because you think it’s “safe”. Much like Taylor Swift, I’ve definitely had my “eras” of wine drinking – Blue Nun, Black Tower, Jacob’s Creek chardonnay, and beyond to where I find myself today – trying as many different styles as I can, and relishing every stage.

Wine is so broad and creative in its styles. Yes, it’s part of my job to taste a lot of wines spanning varieties and price points, and the ones I write about aren’t always the ones I would choose to drink at home, but they’re always what I believe is a good recommendation.

I love to see how my palate evolves and changes, and what different places, food and people make me want to drink. And you should too! If you’re lucky enough to have a thriving sense of taste and smell, then embrace it, and give it the opportunity to surprise you whatever your age.

And, for what it’s worth, some things will never get old – I definitely still have a sweet spot for a sweet wine – though it’s more likely to be a delicious dessert wine than a zinfandel blush. But who’s judging if it is? Certainly not me.