Vintage (winemaking)
In winemaking, the term "vintage" refers to the year in which the grapes used to produce a wine were harvested. This year is significant as it influences the wine's flavor profile, quality, and market price. Wines from the same vineyard and grape variety can differ dramatically in taste if produced in different vintages due to varying weather conditions throughout the growing season. Older wines or those from particularly exceptional years are typically more valued. While many wines are labeled with a vintage, some, like sparkling wines and ports, are blends from multiple harvest years, resulting in a non-vintage product. The practices of winemaking and blending are often regulated, with specific percentages of grapes required to be from the declared vintage. Factors such as climate, temperature, and precipitation during the growing season can significantly impact grape quality, making some vintages more desirable than others. Regions with unpredictable weather may struggle to produce consistent vintages, leading to a preference for blending across years to achieve a more reliable product. In contrast, regions with stable climates can produce more uniform and high-quality wines year after year.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Vintage (winemaking)
The vintage of a wine is the year that the grapes used to make the wine were grown and picked. Knowing the harvest year can make a difference in the wine because it can define the wine’s flavor profile. This means that two wines from the same vineyard that are made of the same variety of grapes using the same winemaking technique but having different vintages can taste very different. The vintage tells the story of a particular wine’s growing season, which determines its quality and by extension its price. Generally, older wines or wines from better growing years, or vintages, are more expensive.
Not all wines have a vintage. This is because grapes from different harvest years are blended during the winemaking process. This is often done to provide consistency in flavor and quality. The most common non-vintage wines are fortified and sparkling wines, such as champagne and port. This is often the case in less expensive bottles of these wines.
Background
The word “vintage” was first recorded to be used in connection with wine in the fifteenth century. It comes from the Old French, “vendage,” which means wine harvest or the yield that comes from a vineyard. In the eighteenth century, the usage shifted to mean the age of a wine related to when the grapes were harvested.
Grape growing seasons vary depending on the hemisphere a vineyard is in. In North America and Europe, the grape-growing season lasts from about April to October, but in countries such as Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand, the grape-growing season is from October to April. Because the growing season in the Southern Hemisphere covers two years, the vintage is given the later year when the harvest takes place.
The winemaking process, or vinification, relies on grapes that are harvested during a single period during the year. Once harvested, the grapes are crushed and pressed into juice, and then this juice is fermented into wine. After this process is complete, the wine may be further clarified or aged before being bottled and consumed. The particulars of this process can vary widely depending on the type and variety of wine being made. For example, a white wine can be ready to be bottled after only a few months of harvest, but a red wine may be aged a year or more before being bottled. A skillful winemaker can use the vinification process and mitigate a poor growing year by using small quantities of wine from another vintage when blending a particular wine. Blending from different vintages can be done at any point during the winemaking process prior to bottling. Hence, an experienced and knowledgeable winemaker can make a poor vintage much better by carefully blending in different vintages.
Because this is a common and acceptable practice in winemaking, many countries regulate the process of determining a wine’s vintage. In most cases, a wine is allowed to contain a small percentage of wine from other years but must primarily be from one year—the year declared on the label as the vintage. For example, South Africa requires winemakers to use at least 75 percent of a vintage to label a bottle with that vintage. Australia, New Zealand, and some other European countries require 85 percent of the wine to be from the declared vintage. In the United States, the requirement is generally 85 percent but in some areas, such as Napa Valley, the requirement is 95 percent.
Overview
Since the weather of a particular year defines the vintage, this is what determines the taste, quality, and price of the wine. An abundance of sunshine during the growing season helps the grapes ripen fully and develop more intense flavors. In contrast, cloudy and rainy weather can prevent grapes from reaching full maturity and make the vines more prone to disease, fungus, or rotting. Excess rain can cause the grapes to swell with moisture and throw off the concertation of flavors and destabilize sugar levels. Storms can cause damage to vines and grape crops. For example, hail can damage flowers and buds and, in some cases, destroy a crop.
Temperature, too, affects the winemaking process. Unusually intense heat can dry out the grapes and cause them to be bitter, and drought can stunt the growth of vines. A late spring frost can kill the vines before they produce fruit, and cold weather can prevent grapes from ripening in time for harvest. Other environmental occurrences, such as nearby fires, can affect air or water quality that in turn affects flavors and quality of the grapes for that season.
Not all grape vines may be affected equally by weather during a season. For example, two areas with the exact same weather may produce different quality wines. Also, various varieties of grapes may be affected differently, and the vintage may also be different for white wines versus red wines. Different grapes grow better or worse in different climates. For example, Riesling grapes prefer sunny warm days and cool nights, such as is found in Germany and the state of Washington in the United States. On the other hand, Cabernet Sauvignon does best in a hot, dry, and sunny climate to reach its full protentional, which is why Napa Valley in California consistently produces high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon wines.
Vintage tends to matter most in growing regions with highly variable climates. Unpredictable weather in places like Champagne, France, makes a consistently good vintage difficult. In many places that weather is unpredictable or usually poor, vintages may be mixed to produce a more consistent product and the wine sold without a vintage or non-vintage and labeled as “NV.” Vintage wines from unpredictable regions are generally of unusually good quality and therefore more expensive. Wine from more predictable climates with sunny and consistent growing seasons, such as Spain, Portugal, Australia, and California, usually produce similar results for each vintage.
Bibliography
Asimov, Eric. “How to Think About Wine Vintages.” New York Times, 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/dining/drinks/wine-vintages.html. Accessed 07 June 2022.
Earl, Natalie. “What Does ‘Vintage’ Mean?” Decanter, 2021, www.decanter.com/learn/how-to-understand-vintage-54305/. Accessed 07 June 2022.
Eigel, Katie. “See How Wine is Made in Pictures (From Grapes to Glass).” Wine Folly, 2022, /winefolly.com/deep-dive/how-wine-is-made-in-pictures/. Accessed 07 June 2022.
“How to Read a Wine Label.” Napa Valley Wine, 2019, napavalley.wine/articles/how-to-read-a-wine-label—17. Accessed 07 June 2022.
Hunt, Maria C. “The Differences Between Vintage and NonVintage Wines, Explained.” Wine Enthusiast, 2022, www.winemag.com/2022/02/01/difference-vintage-nonvintage-wine/. Accessed 07 June 2022.
Slinkard, Stacy. “Wine Vintages and Why They Matter (Sometimes).” Wine Folly, 2022, winefolly.com/deep-dive/wine-vintages-and-why-they-matter/. Accessed 07 June 2022.
“Vintage.” Etymonline, n.d., www.etymonline.com/word/vintage. Accessed 07 June 2022.