Q: Do you know what percentage of wine produced in the world is consumed within one year?

A: According to Steven Kolpan, author of Exploring Wine and professor of Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America, "96% of the wine produced in the world is made to be consumed within one year of its vintage; 99% within 2 years. This leaves for aging just 1% of the wine produced in the world. The overwhelming portion of this wine will be consumed within 5 years. No more than one-tenth of 1% of the wine produced annually in the world is destined to be among the treasured classics (that translates into about 1.5 million of the more than 15 billion bottles of wine made world wide each year)." So get out that bottle of wine you've been holding for just the right moment, and make tonight a special occasion.