Vintage Wines, More Than Just a Label
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009A number of non-wine drinkers have been thrown by a common misconception about Vintage Wine. Many hold the belief that because it is labeled as a ‘vintage wine’ that it is superior in quality and taste. In the wine industry, a vintage wine is a wine that has been made by grapes grown and collected from one particular season.
The idea may have originated from the producers of Vintage Port in who make ports based off grapes from certain years, which are later analyzed and the ‘good years’ are then decided. These ‘good batches’ are then labeled as ‘Vintage Ports’ by each winery, indicating a particularly good batch.
Vintage wines do share some aspects of the labeling but it is not exactly the same. Like Port, Vintage wines are made using only the grapes from a particular year, however this does not guarantee that the wine will be of higher quality. The usual practice is for the wine to be released and wine critics to discuss and decide over which wines are of high quality over time.
Another surprising fact is that vintage wines do not actually have to be made from 100% of grapes from that year. Some wines originating from South Africa or Chilie are only required to consist of 75% same year grapes.In other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, America and the EU, they are required to be 85% and up.
The other types of wine, which are just called ‘non-vintage’ wines, can be made from grapes form harvests over two or more years. Some wineries use this method to create wines with consistent tastes and quality.
In the past, vintage wines were prized and did have different qualities and tastes according to the years they were grown, however modern farming techniques and irrigation now lets most wineries grow consistent crops, but the debate over quality still continues to this day.
