Date: Fri 19-Jul-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: CHRISL

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

Small-Wine-Wisdom-Vintage

Full Text:

(Wine Wisdom column on vintage-description & meaning, 7/19/96)

Wine Wisdom-

One Aspect Of Quality: Vintage

By Steve Small

An interesting note in USA Today recently disclosed the discovery of wine

residue at the bottom of a 3,000-year-old clay pot. The pot was found in Iran

and was believed to be dated about 5,000 BC (give or take a couple of

centuries). I cannot tell you if 5,000 BC was a good year because I am afraid

my vintage charts do not go back that far. I can tell you, however, that

vintages are fun to talk about when the subject is wine.

A wine vintage is the year the grapes were harvested, and the wine was made

from those grapes. Many wines are non-vintage because the grapes to make the

wine did not necessarily come from one particular year.

Some fine wines are not bottled in the year the wine was made. Many red wines

often spend years in barrels before bottling. However, the vintage of the wine

is still the year the grapes were picked, crushed and fermented, and not the

year it was bottled.

One of the classic wine stereotypes is the mustached gentleman opining over a

glass of wine and "a very good year." What exactly is "a very good year?" It

is a year when everything goes right for the winemaker: The proper amounts of

sun and rain at just the right times yield an excellent crop of grapes. These

grapes then make an excellent bottle of wine.

However, grape growing has so many variables that vintages are different by

country, by state, and even by areas within the state. The weather conditions

also might be good for some kinds of grapes, but not others.

A "vintage" year applies to French Champagnes and Ports from Portugal. Top

wineries will only make vintage Champagnes and vintage Ports in the best

years. The juice from non-vintage years will be used to make the wineries'

non-vintage wines.

Because vintage Ports and Champagnes are the wineries' best, prices usually

start at around $40 for a 750 ml bottle and go up from there.

Vintages are only one factor in determining the quality of a bottle of wine.

Good winemakers can make good wines in "bad" vintages. Most of the

consistently good wineries will make good wines in almost every year.

Consistency is achieved through blending juice from different vineyard sites

and knowledgeable wine making. For many of the world's most expensive wines,

vintages can be extremely important.

For everyday wine drinking, however, knowing the names of wines you enjoy day

in and day out is much more important.