Red and White Wines: Don't Forget the Vintage

When a person is searching for those perfect bottles of red wines, he considers a lot of factors, such as the winery that produced it, the price, and the taste. However, many casual wine drinkers do not pay attention to the vintage of the wine and vintage is actually very important. It can have a definite affect on the taste of the wine.

The vintage is the year that the grapes were harvested. If you look at a label on a bottle of wine, you will see the producer, the vineyard, the winemaker, and the vintage. You can purchase a bottle of wine one year and then the exact same bottle the next year, with all the same information, but if the vintage is different, the wine can taste different. Instead of paying attention to the vintage, a consumer will keep purchasing that exact same bottle of red wine, despite it tasting slightly different from the previous bottle. He won't understand why, but he'll continue to purchase it nonetheless. The vintage has everything to do with the weather patterns the year of the harvest. Did the vineyard have a very rainy season or was it unusually cold? Even slight changes in the weather can affect red and white wines.

A good example is Riesling -a popular style of white wines. The grapes used in a Riesling do their best in cooler conditions, making Germany and Oregon the leading producers of this wine. However, one warm or dry season and the wine will suffer. The bottle you fell in love with last season just won't taste the same this year. But if the winemaker is clever enough, he will know how to properly deal with a bad season. By using various techniques during the vinification process, the winemaker can truly turn a negative into a positive. He can blend different grapes, use a different fermentation process, or use additives to get rid of any sour taste. Knowing these skills is what separates a good winemaker from an excellent one.

So are non-vintage wines bad? Absolutely not. Sparkling wines and fortified wines are almost always labeled "non-vintage." These wines will blend different grape vintages together in order to produce a consistent wine from year to year. However, if there has been very good growing conditions, a winemaker will create a vintage Champagne or Port. You can expect to pay quite a lot of money though for these vintage drinks.

Vintage may not seem important to the occasional wine drinkers, but if you are enjoy a particular vineyard, it is best to be aware of how the season went. If you're interested in knowing, you can easily look up reports online -either through the specific vineyard's website or through general wine resource websites. The next time you're ready to crack open your favorite bottles of red wines, check the vintage. It's not there for just show!

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