What Is Vintage?
A wine's vintage tells you which year the grapes were picked. Almost all wines come from a single harvest year, and the label will show the year the wine was made.
Why does the year matter? The answer lies in the weather. The climate of any wine-growing region varies, sometimes dramatically, from one year to the next. Different grape varieties respond to different conditions in their own way, and those differences show up in the taste.
The opposite of a vintage wine is a non-vintage wine — often abbreviated NV on a wine list — which is blended from two or more harvest years. This is common practice for winemakers seeking a consistent style year after year. Champagne houses, for example, rely heavily on non-vintage blends to maintain a recognizable house character.
Why Does Vintage Matter to You?
It matters because it can help you understand what year you preferred in a particular style of wine, and whether a bottle should be opened now or given more time to develop. Even with everyday wines, if you found a recent bottling too tannic or too sharp, an older vintage of the same wine may have softened and mellowed with time.