The Vintage Wine Myth

People who are not well versed in wine history usually share a common misunderstanding about vintage wine. Many believe that marking the Vintage automatically means "old" and of high quality, but it is not always ring true. A vintage wine is a wine made from grapes grown and harvested in a particular year. 

The misunderstanding may have been brought over from the producers of Vintage Port, which follows the practice of creating vintage ports and later declare which was the best year of harvest. These "good time then labeled 'Vintage Ports, each vineyard, indicating a particularly good batch. 

Vintage wines share some similarities, but it does translate directly across. Like Port, vintage wine is made exclusively using grapes from a particular year, but it does not guarantee that the wine will be of higher quality. The normal practice is that the wine is released and wine critics to discuss and determine which wines are of high quality over time. 

To add to this, not vintage wines actually do not have to be 100% made from grapes from the same year. In areas such as Chili and South Africa, vintage wines may consist of 75% grapes from that year and up. American wines, New Zealand, Australia and Member of the European Union requires 85% before they make it possible to be labeled as vintage wine. 

Non-vintage wines labeled free to use grapes from the harvest, including two years or more. This is done by wine makers who seek to achieve and maintain a consistent style of wine from year to year. 

In the past, vintage wines were appreciated and had different qualities and taste according to the year they were grown, however, modern farming techniques and irrigation now allows most wineries consistently grow crops, but the debate about the quality still remains to this day. 

Follow the link for more information on vintage wine.