Year of the wine
The word that most often confuses an amateur just stepping into the world of wines is ‘vintage’. The waiter will often quote vintage wine and leave you confused at to what exactly is vintage?
The year of the wine is often called as a vintage. The word vintage is nothing more than a more sophisticated way of saying the year of the manufacture of the wine and how much it has aged. As most wine drinkers know, that the year of the wine is very important of drinking expensive wine because different years will produce different tasting wine even if all the other factors are kept same, the wine is greatly affected by the factors in which the grapes were growing, e.g. the winter frosts, excessive rain etc, these minor aberrations can sometimes produce a world of difference in the way the wines tastes.
The amount of sugar in a grape is directly affected by the level of rain when harvest is close by. The yeast converts sugars into alcohol, so depending on the amount of rainfall and subsequently the sweetness of the grape the wine is produced having more alcohol or less or having a particular taste of texture not found in the wines from the same vintner but different year.
Thus the common adage old is gold is proved wrong, a wine aged 10 years but not with enough sugars or from a bad year will not have any edge over a young wine, infact it is better to drink a young wine than an old one in such a situation. Old wines are good only if age is coupled with a good harvest year. The wine enthusiast magazine brings out a list of the best wines and their vintages, with any luck it is possible thus with this handy reference to find an affordable good tasting wine and if you are taking someone out, to impress your date.
Filed under: Beginners Guide
