Vintage Wine
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Vintage Wine
Deep Dive Wine Vintages and Why They Matter (Sometimes)
A wine vintage is the year in which the grapes were harvested. A wine’s vintage can greatly affect the taste and quality, primarily because of the weather that affects the vines throughout the growing season.
Wines without a vintage date: Non-vintage wine is made by blending multiple years together. Non-vintage wines are known for their consistent, house style and are usually a good value. For example, a common non-vintage wine is Champagne labeled simply as “N.V.”
If vintage just reflects a region’s weather patterns in a given year, then what makes a vintage good or bad? Essentially, the defining feature of a vintage is sunshine. Sunny days give grapes the best chance of reaching full maturity and optimum ripeness levels. If a region receives too much rain and clouds, grapes do not fully ripen, may be more prone to rot and disease, and tend to deliver lower quality grapes. Conversely, if the region is too hot (too many days above 92 ºF / 33 ºC) and sunny, then grapes become raisinated before they fully ripen and the resulting wines may be flabby or have bitter tannins.
You can look at vintage charts to see expert’s opinions on vintages. Keep in mind that if it was a good vintage in one region, it might not be one in another. Also, great vintage for red wines may not be as good for white wines from the same region. Here are a couple of good vintage charts that cover most of the world’s wine regions:
Quickly identify flavors in wine using the printed version of the aroma chart.
You can figure out if a vintage was good or bad yourself by identifying key features about the weather in a vintage.
By the way, different types of grapes prefer different types of climates. For example, Riesling grows well in sunny areas with cool nights. Cabernet Sauvignon, on the other hand, needs a dry, hot and sunny climate to properly mature.
Vintage year plays the biggest role in regions with the most variable climates. For example, many of Europe’s more northern winegrowing regions (France, Germany, Northern Italy) have some of the least predictable weather. Here’s where you should pay attention to vintage:
As important as vintage is for some regions and wines, it’s not as important in others:
Savvy consumers know where to look for the best wine deals. A good vintage is a great time to buy value wine because good grapes coming into the cellar mean less work (and less expertise) is needed from the winemaking. Case in point, red wines from Sicily and Sardinia from 2014 offer tremendous value from this stellar Italian vintage. Keep in mind that while one vintage may spell disaster for a region’s red wine crop, the cooler temperatures may raise the bar on regional whites by compensating for crisp acidity and vibrant palate profiles.
Considerable debate swirls as to who exerts more influence over a given bottle of wine. Is it the vintage or the vintner? In days gone by, wines were at the ruthless mercy of Mother Nature. However, in today’s tech-driven cellars the winemaker has plenty of trendy tools available to combat and compensate for less than stellar weather cycles. From introducing specific strains of yeast to shake up aromatics or sculpt palate texture, to utilizing reverse osmosis to tame elevated alcohol levels and additives that adjust color components, the winemaker’s tool belt is brimming with tips and tricks.
At both extremes, producers are blasted for over manipulating a wine when it tells little of a particular growing season’s story. Likewise, allowing a wine to reveal just how challenging a vintage was without cellar intervention brings considerable criticism as well.
Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine is an international best-selling and award-winning book designed to help people find their taste and become confident with wine.
Quickly identify flavors in wine using the printed version of the aroma chart.
After a six year stint in the brewing industry, Stacy realized her palate preferred grapes over grains. Today, she is a wine writer, educator and sommelier.
Home / Everything Else / What does Vintage Wine mean?
What Makes A Vintage Wine Have A Lower Success Rate?
What Does Vintage Mean for Wine Collectors?
Verwood Estate Wines has a First Vintage Collection available which is the first 100 bottles of each wine bottled ( Chardonnay , Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir , Shiraz Rosé , and Sparkling Shiraz Rosé ), all from the 2019 range. Prices start from $99.00 to $105.00 and all come with a certificate of authenticity that can either be a great start, or great addition to your collection. You can find this on our website .
Verwood Estate Wines would like to acknowledge the sovereign custodians of the Gundungurran land we are priviledged to grow Verwood Estate wines on.
The Gundungurran people of the Woonjeegaaribay Shire have always been and will always be the sovereign custodians of the land we know as Verwood.
It is with great honour that we have been welcomed to this land by our local Gundungurran elders. That we have been seen by the ancestors and the great spirits.
We honour and practise Nunungulla – to walk and work together . It is with the spirit of Nunungulla that we are honoured to share our wine with you. Our own labour of love.
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In this article, we will be focussing on answering the question of “what does vintage wine mean?”. We will also delve into what makes a vintage wine, what does vintage mean for wine and what is a non-vintage wine.
Here at Verwood Estate Wines, we have a 2019 Vintage Collection that was our first vintages in 7 years, as well as a First Vintage Collection 2019. But what exactly does this mean?
For Verwood, the 2019 Vintage Collection is special as it is the first wine that the gentle old vines in the vineyard have given rise to in 7 years. Because of this, it has accounted for the lush aromas, in addition to the satin smooth and plump flavours within the wines.
Verwood Estate Wines is located in the Southern Highlands, an area to be considered a cool climate, in which it produces cool climate wines – if you’re interested in finding out more about cool climate wines, we have another blog in the journal section of our website called ‘ What are Cool Climate Wines ?’ that goes into further detail for you.
Whilst remaining a cool climate wine, 2019 had an uncharacteristically dry and hot growing summer in the Southern Highlands, with a wet season just before picking allowing our wines to have a beautiful, smooth balance whilst remaining pleasant on the palate and not over-powering – an overall enjoyable selection of wines. As our Collection of Vintage is recently new, being from 2019, our wine will keep getting better with age (like ourselves), maturing and gaining in body.
To put it in simple terms, vintage wine means the year in which a wine’s grapes were picked, (Decanter, 2010). This can be from grapes that were all, or primarily grown and picked in one year, (McWilliams, 2018).
The majority of still wines in Australia, both white and red, come from a single vintage, in which you can find the specific vintage year printed on each bottle’s label.
Vintage means that each vintage wine will have a unique flavour profile, based on the grapes harvested from that particular year. This primarily has a lot to do with the weather throughout the year in which the grapes were grown and picked in. Just as our climate changes in each wine-growing region, so does our microclimate (the climate of a very small or restricted area that typically differs from the climate of the general surrounding area). The changes in the microclimate is what creates such variation in the vintage as some years may have more humidity, or wet seasons than others, thus impacting the flavour of the vintages each time.
When a wine-growing region has a great microclimate of warm days and cool nights, this can create a good vintage due to the grapes ripening to their optimum Baume content, full of bold and intense fruit flavours and medium tannins. Whereas, if a region were to have a poor microclimate for the year, involving heavy rainfalls and varying, unstable conditions, then the likelihood is that the grapes for that year will have minimal flavours and tannins, therefore not creating a good vintage.
However, this does also depend on the types of grapes being grown as some grapes will grow better in some conditions than others, for example Riesling thrives in sunny days and cool nights, unlike a Cabernet Sauvignon which needs a dry, hot and sunny climate in order to mature fully.
As we’ve previously mentioned, a vintage wine means the year in which the grapes were grown and harvested in, in order to make that wine. We’ve also stated that it is primarily down to microclimate and the conditions wherein the grapes grow, whether it be hot/sunny or wet seasons with plenty of downpour. But what makes a vintage wine good?
The microclimate does have a big impact on whether a wine will be a vintage or not, though to get a good vintage, the weather does need to have a that special ingredient of sunshine – lots at that. Sunny days are great for grapes as it allows them to fully ripen and increase the Baume content (sugar levels), which in turn determines the alcohol content within the wine, (it’s what makes your standard grape juice into adult drinking juice!)
It’s not all rainbows and unicorns for warmer climates though as having drought and exceptionally hot weather can pause growth on vines with them requiring some cooler temperatures to stem good growth, thus impacting the grapes’ overall quality. Hotter climates can also occasionally have wet seasons, in which this can cause fungal diseases in grapes and therefore ruin them.
Quite simply, the opposite, which goes without saying. Cool climate areas, such as the Southern Highlands in NSW and Yarra Valley in VIC, can be prone to frost in early spring which has a detrimental effect on vines and their growth. Frost can destroy buds before they even begin to flower, which in turn can affect whether the vines will have a second successful growth as they have already been damaged once. If you’d like to find out more about frost, you can find another article called ‘ Grape Frost Protection’ on our journal section of the website at Verwood Estate.
A non-vintage wine is produced by blending multiple vintage years together. These wines tend to have more consistency in their taste and can be tailored to a certain style, neither depending on the type of year the microclimate in the wine-growing region has had.
Instead of basing a wine on a year, unknowingly whether it will be a good or bad year in terms of microclimate, non-vintage wines are characteristically more reliable, which is great for consumers as they ultimately know what they’re buying and in for, making it great for businesses with regular customers who have an acquired taste!
Fortified wines, such as Port or Sherry, and Champagne are typical examples of non-vintage wines as these types rely on being more consistent overall in taste each year. You can always tell if a wine is non-vintage as it usually has ‘N.V’ on the label.
When collecting wine, collectors are looking for a wine to have good aging potential, fine vintage weather, and rarity and provenance. It is important to choose a good vintage as if wine is already ‘bad’, it is most definitely not going to get better with age. When buying vintage wines, it is worth investing in a good vintage that is known for its taste, as well as tannins and acidity as this entails that the wine will age beautifully – not to mention that it will also become a great addition to a wine collector’s collection.
When beginning a collection, wine collector’s must expect that they aren’t always going to get good vintages first time around; because of this, even experienced wine collectors have selections of wines that are for the purpose of everyday or occasional drinking, compared to a great vintage that they will cellar away for years to come. Essentially, it’s all about trial and error and whether or not you are willing to invest a fine amount in a good vintage (as this is what typically signifies a good vintage, in addition to cellaring potential and provenance).
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3131 Canyonleigh Rd Sutton Forest NSW 2577
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Vintage Wines carries over a thousand wines from around the world, to include Virginia. All products are hand picked by the owner. Vintage Wines stocks: wine, beer, sake,cheese, chocolates, mustards, vinegars, glassware and other collectibles. Vintage Wines provides excellent service, product knowledge, pairing suggestions, and always helping you find your next favorite wine.
Important update: We are open in accordance with local, state, federal, and CDC guidelines.
Vintage Wines carries over a thousand wines from around the world, to include Virginia. All products are hand picked by the owner. Vintage Wines stocks: wine, beer, sake,cheese, chocolates, mustards, vinegars, glassware and other collectibles. Vintage Wines provides excellent service, product knowledge, pairing suggestions, and always helping you find your next favorite wine.
Important update: We are open in accordance with local, state, federal, and CDC guidelines.
Vintage Wines carries over a thousand wines from around the world, to include Virginia. All products are hand picked by the owner. Vintage Wines stocks: wine, beer, sake,cheese, chocolates, mustards, vinegars, glassware and other collectibles. Vintage Wines provides excellent service, product knowledge, pairing suggestions, and always helping you find your next favorite wine.
Important update: We are open in accordance with local, state, federal, and CDC guidelines.
Vintage Wines carries over a thousand wines from around the world, to include Virginia. All products are hand picked by the owner. Vintage Wines stocks: wine, beer, sake,cheese, chocolates, mustards, vinegars, glassware and other collectibles. Vintage Wines provides excellent service, product knowledge, pairing suggestions, and always helping you find your next favorite wine.
Important update: We are open in accordance with local, state, federal, and CDC guidelines.
Vintage Wines carries over a thousand wines from around the world, to include Virginia. All products are hand picked by the owner. Vintage Wines stocks: wine, beer, sake,cheese, chocolates, mustards, vinegars, glassware and other collectibles. Vintage Wines provides excellent service, product knowledge, pairing suggestions, and always helping you find your next favorite wine.
Important update: We are open in accordance with local, state, federal, and CDC guidelines.
Vintage Wines carries over a thousand wines from around the world, to include Virginia. All products are hand picked by the owner. Vintage Wines stocks: wine, beer, sake,cheese, chocolates, mustards, vinegars, glassware and other collectibles. Vintage Wines provides excellent service, product knowledge, pairing suggestions, and always helping you find your next favorite wine.
Important update: We are open in accordance with local, state, federal, and CDC guidelines.
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Vintage Wines opened in 2004 with a vision to bring handmade, high quality wines to the Shenandoah Valley. All types of wines are stocked, dry to sweet and everything in between. Vintage Wines is much more than just wine. Here, you will find a large selection of Sake, Porto, Sherry, imported and craft beer, vermouth, and a wide variety of sparkling wine. Gourmet foods are available to go with your wine. Different types of collectibles, jewelry, artwork, and some antiques are here for your viewing pleasure and are available for purchase. Stop in soon to see us, and enjoy professional customer service in a relaxed and fun environment.
All wine, beer, gourmet foods, and collectibles, are hand selected,
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Antique and Vintage Decorative Ceramics
Antique Vintage and New Crystal Stemware
Antique and Vintage Decorative Ceramics
Antique Vintage and New Crystal Stemware
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Argentina
Australia
California
France
Italy
Oregon
Portugal
Spain
Washington
South America
Cabernet Sauvignon
Pinot Noir
Red Blends
Syrah/Shiraz
Cabernet Franc
Hentai Spread
Lingerie Bangs
Dorcel Secretary Lesbian