Skip to main content

What’s in a Vintage? Exploring The Importance of Years on Wine Labels

There aren’t many industries as focused on years as wine. A vintage is slapped on a label proudly, a declaration of a certain time and place for all imbibers to know.

But what does it really mean? Winemakers who’ve been in the game for a while can rattle off years with encyclopedic knowledge, telling you the growing seasons that produced certain styles of wine. It can be a little intimidating, but the gist of the vintage is actually quite simple.

Recommended Videos

The main factor at play is weather. Like so many crops, wine grapes ripen according to the conditions they’re given. The most important stretch happens between flowering and harvest, a span of about 100 days somewhere around May to September, give or take, in the northern hemisphere. Some grapes reflect the weather of a given vintage more than others, like Pinot Noir.

wine bottle vintage 2011 closeup
Kenny Luo

Entire books and research papers have been written about the topic but generally, a warmer year produces a fuller wine. Which makes sense, given that more sun usually means more sugar in the fruit, which in turn means more alcohol and often a bigger mouthfeel. The opposite is the case for cooler years, when there’s less sugar but more acid (or, at least it can stand out more in the company of less ripe fruit).

The shift in alcohol content can be dramatic from year to year, especially in a place like the Willamette Valley where wines aren’t often manipulated and made to reflect vintage variation. The 2011 growing season, for example, was one of the coolest ever, with some Oregon wineries harvesting as late as mid-November (it’s pretty rare to go beyond Halloween here). Conversely, in 2015, the same wineries were harvesting in early September. The ABV for a lot of the ’11 Pinot Noirs is around 12.5-13%. Some of the ‘15s got up to 15%.

When you hear vintners talk about vintage, they go into a bit more detail. More often than not, they’re looking for balance. That’s achieved through slow and steady ripening, acid retention, and picking at just the right time (before the rains dilute things or spark mold and before the grapes get too ripe and flabby). They’ll talk up years with big diurnal shifts; that is, warm days and cool nights, which keep that tension of acid and sugar alive and well in the clusters.

Of course, because a good part of selling wine is in the backstory, some of the vintage is about what happened that particular year. These things are typically weather-related, too, but less directly. A hot and dry year that inspires voles to feed on the roots of vines, limiting the yield and concentrating the juice and resulting in dense wines; a particularly late harvest in which the birds swoop in by the cover of night and eat some of the vintage; a quarantine year, like the wine community in the southern hemisphere is currently experiencing, which will go down in history for many, many reasons.

wine bottle vintage 1990
Colin Watts

With climate change altering the picture, the concept of vintage becomes all the more complex. Wildfires are more likely in and around winegrowing areas, sending smoke into grape clusters and doing everything from adding a kiss of charred pepper in the wines to destroying entire growing seasons with an unsalvageable crop.

Hotter summers will mean more UV damage and, essentially, the raisin-ing of fruit. These grapes are discarded, leading to smaller yields and less wine produced — another important aspect of vintage as it could lead to some regions blending in juice from other, less-affected regions or simply less volume, meaning more scarcity in the market. Climate change also brings potentially disastrous and more severe weather events, like monsoons, tornadoes, and frost or heat spikes at unexpected times, which can tweak overall vineyard yields as well.

The best way to experience vintage variation is by way of the vertical. This wine tasting exercise pits the exact same wine from several consecutive vintages against itself. It’s a fun way to see just how impactful individual growing seasons are. For best results, make sure the wine is more or less made the same way each year, pulling from the same vineyard and aged similarly. That way, you have a tasty control by which you can measure the effects of vintage.

And if you want to study things on a year-to-year basis, to see what you should stock up on and what might cellar well, Wine Enthusiast has some nifty charts for your reference.

Mark Stock
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
You won’t find claret wine in the store, but you’ve probably already had some
A corrupted name with a cool history
Red wine being poured into a glass

Perhaps you’re into period English movies (like, say, anything by Jane Austen). If so, you’ve noticed that when it’s time to break out the good stuff (you know, the bottle from the cellar that needs to be decanted), it’s always a wine called "claret." While I do enjoy the occasional Jane Austen movie, I’ve been a more consistent fan of wine -- but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what this claret stuff was, why it was so beloved, and where I could get my hands on it. The short answer is that "claret" is basically British slang for red wines from Bordeaux. The long answer involves ancient Romans, Eleanor of Aquitaine, English corruption of the French language, the Hundred Years’ War, and a dry, brick-red rosé that might not yet be on your radar.

The Romans, great champions of the grape themselves, did bring viticulture to the Bordeaux region -- though, to be honest, they were much more interested in the trading potential of the huge natural harbor located in the Gironde River estuary. Once the empire collapsed, so did those trade routes from the Mediterranean to northern Europe. Ultimately, Bordeaux (along with the rest of southwest France) became part of the large, powerful, and independent duchy of Aquitaine. And this is where our claret wine story begins.
Bordeaux was English for centuries

Read more
Helpful wine terminology so you sound like you know what you’re talking about
Every pursuit has its buzzwords
White wine in a glass

There’s always something to be learned in the vast world of wine. Knowing a bit of the language will keep you from getting lost in translation and potentially buying something you might not like. Plus, you’ll sound informed the next time you’re in a tasting room or perusing a bottle shop, online or in person.
So, while you study up on outstanding regions like Alto Adige and unique styles like white pinot noir, pack this handy term guide with you. The list is a combination of winemaking terminology and the words industry types like to use to describe wines and their very specific styles. It might just expose you to your new favorite bottle or producer.
But first, let's start with wine terminology fundamentals. Someone has poured you a glass of wine, and told you what the varietal is -- maybe it's a malbec or a chardonnay or a blend of different grapes (more on varietals later). What's the first thing you notice? The color -- is the wine butter yellow or brick red? Next comes the nose: What do you smell? Citrus, or perhaps dried cherries?

Now, take your first sip. What's the mouthfeel? Is the wine light or heavy? What other sensations are there besides the taste? If it's a red, there could be tannins, which impart a sandpapery feeling like apple peels or strong black tea. Conversely, white wine's structure usually comes from acidity, which can present like lemon peel or yuzu. Lastly, notice the finish -- does the wine linger on the palate or get out quickly? How do the flavors resolve?
Now that you have a glass in hand, let's get specific

Read more
A beginner’s guide to sweet red wines: Why they’re more exciting than you think
It's not just for red meat anymore
Glass of red wine with fruit and ice on table

When it comes to wine, it's really more about the exceptions than the rules. You could be forgiven for thinking that a glass of red should be robust like a Bordeaux or earthy like a California cab. At any rate, it should be "dry," right? Oh, no, budding wine enthusiast. I'm here to tell you about some red wines that are literally toothsome. It all started when I had my first glass of a fizzy, sweet Lambrusco, along with an Italian dessert pastry featuring dark chocolate and burnt meringue, and life got noticeably better.

Let's start with the basics: What makes a wine sweet? The answer is simple -- the amount of residual sugar left after fermentation. Grapes tend to be sweet, after all, and yeast eats sugar to produce (among other things) alcohol. By stalling the fermentation process (or back sweetening the result), a wine can taste sweet, regardless of whether the grape varietal is red or white. (There's also a thing called "noble rot," scientifically known as botrytis cinerea. Although it's a fungus, it imparts a distinctive sweetness to wines and therefore we love it.) Let's visit the wonderful world of sweet red wine.
Sparkling sweet reds: It's a thing

Read more