Eyes closed, I take a whiff. I smile through my words as I tell them ‘toast and petrol.’

It goes the same almost every time, I open my eyes to see the poor people staring at me as if I’m mad. This is how the conversation goes pretty much any time I’m tasting an aged wine with those uninitiated.

I want to let you in to the world of aged wines, for you to experience the glee I do at a single sniff, and to understand why tasting a well-aged wine needs to be on your bucket list.

Of course, it all starts with a good bottle – you can’t age 2-buck-chuck. It takes fruit of a certain quality, from an ideal vintage, that’s been handled well and made with love to last.

While over 95 per cent of wines are consumed within 24 hours of purchase, and the other 4 per cent within weeks, just one percent remains. How the wine ages, and the characters within, completely reflect the vintage – it’s like opening a time capsule and experiencing flavours and textures from a single point in time, years ago.

The first wine that truly made me understand the remarkability of cellaring, was an aged Riesling. Atop a rustic, historic vineyard the winemaker who was on verge of retirement told us we were in for a treat, the best wine he believes he’s ever made was almost 20 years prior, and only a few bottles remained. Tasting that wine with him was such a privilege.

Romance and nostalgia aside, the complexity in these wines is unlike any other. The best whites will keep some fresh citrus notes, and a little primary fruit, but soften into layers of toasty, marmalade, minerality, and my favourite; a richness which can only be described as gasoline. The flavours intertwine in harmony, with a boldness and creamy texture, and then soften to a round, long finish.

For reds, a little primary fruit is still ideal, and maybe some spice from the oak, but the main event are the unique characters which literally can only come about through age; leather, cigar box, smoke, wet leaves, farmyard, and dried fruits.

The characters of the best aged wines work like an orchestra; an expert can sort and identify the different parts, but they work beautifully in unison, integrated and round, making a magnificent whole.

Have I convinced you yet? Next thing’s next, go to your favourite winery and ask for the best wines to age, buy a case and put them under your house, or the bottom of a dark cupboard, somewhere dark with consistent temperature. Yes it’s quite the investment, you’re not going to enjoy the fruits of your labour for probably at least 10 years. But imagine when you do; it will take you to a place, to a year, to a time. Imagine all the things that wine will have been with you through; toast to your successes, to your losses, for the journey you’ve been on in years in-between.

Or you know, go to a fancy restaurant and pay some big dollars for one where the work’s been done for you, not gonna lie – it’s still gonna taste bloody magnificent.