What Makes a Good or Poor Vintage?

Why Does Vintage Matter?

Ever wondered why some wines age beautifully while others not so much? 

Does aged wine mean it's better wine? 

Apart from the grape’s natural ageability (rarely does a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio age gracefully), a wine’s ageability is often determined by vintage which is influenced by the weather. 

Vintage plays a crucial role in determining a wine’s flavor, structure, and aging potential. It’s actually unnatural for a wine to taste exactly the same every vintage. While winemakers can use techniques to mitigate some challenges, they cannot fully compensate for a poor growing season. The natural conditions of a given year significantly impacts grape ripeness, acidity, and balance, making some vintages exceptional and others less so.

If winemakers can "fix" poor-quality grapes through blending, aging techniques, or vineyard interventions, does vintage truly matter? 

The short answer is yes. While skilled winemakers can adjust some aspects of the final product, the quality of the grapes sets the foundation for the wine. Exceptional vintages come from seasons where nature has provided the optimal balance of conditions, reducing the need for major corrections in the winery. Complex wines are naturally occurring as part of the development of the grape, for simpler wines, it’s easier for poor quality to be “masked” through tools winemakers have available to them. 

For example, if you’re making a dining room table out of a piece of wood, two styles you can choose from is a light stain or white paint. The stain allows the wood to shine on its own, inconsistencies and all - each dining room table is different because each piece of wood is different. A painted piece of wood can easily conform to an expectation and a uniformity, type of wood, quality of wood is not as important, since any flaw is masked by the paint. 

Why Vintage Knowledge Helps Consumers Make Informed Decisions

Understanding vintage variation allows wine buyers to make better purchasing choices. Some vintages produce wines that are structured and built to age, while others are softer and more approachable early on. Complexity in wine is naturally occurring and is difficult to replicate year after year (vintage after vintage). Understanding vintages help consumers determine which wines would likely benefit from aging, while others are at their peak drinking window. 

• Wine collectors looking for investment-worthy wines can use vintage reports to select wines with high aging potential. Knowing about vintages helps when giving a wine gift to a collector. Since vintages are unpredictable, gifting a wine from a good vintage shows intention and thoughtfulness. 
• Casual wine drinkers may prefer vintages that produced fruit-forward wines meant for early enjoyment - and there is nothing wrong with that! Understanding that some wines need to be laid down in order to fully develop is important when selecting a bottle. 
• Vintage knowledge helps determine when a wine is at its peak drinking window and whether it may benefit from further aging.
• Know your palate! Not everyone enjoys the characteristics of “aged” wine. Some vintages produce wines that are ready to consume, not all vintages age gracefully. If what you like about a wine is its fruit characteristics, as a wine ages, that quality becomes less prominent. 

What Factors Affect Vintage Quality?

Several key weather-related factors shape a wine's vintage quality. These include growing season weather, harvest conditions, grape ripeness and balance, and disease or pest pressure. Understanding these conditions can help you determine what makes a good wine vintage and how to choose the best vintage wine for you.

How Weather Shapes Wine Quality

Growing Season Weather

The weather throughout the growing season can make or break a vintage. Different weather events impact the vines at various stages:

Spring Frosts

• Timing: Occurs in March-April in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Impact: Can damage young buds and flowers, reducing grape clusters and overall yields, 
• Wine Quality Issues:
  • Inconsistent Quality: Delayed growth leads to uneven ripening. With the loss of primary buds, the secondary buds are usually less fruitful and tend to ripen unevenly leading to inconsistent quality.
  • Flabby Wines: Damaged vines struggle to achieve sugar and acid balance, typically resulting in reduced acidity, which leads to flabby wines.
  • Underripe grapes can create herbaceous, green flavors.

• Winemaker Adaptations: Vineyard fans, heaters, and sprinklers can help protect vines. If damage occurs, winemakers may lower yields to ensure the remaining grapes ripen fully.

Excess Rainfall

• Timing - During flowering: 
• Impact: Can disrupt fruit set, reducing the number of grapes and overall yields. Hail is especially damaging with damage to fruit set and canopy development. If rain is followed by cool weather, ripening slows tannin, sugar and acid development.
• Wine Quality Issues: Similar to the effects of spring frost
  • Uneven Ripening: Delayed growth leads to uneven ripening. With the loss of primary buds, the secondary buds are usually less fruitful and tend to ripen unevenly leading to inconsistent quality.
  • Flabby Wines: Hail damaged vines struggle to achieve sugar and acid balance, typically resulting in reduced acidity, which leads to flabby wines.
  • Underripe grapes can create herbaceous, green flavors.
• Winemaker Adaptations: cover crops to absorb excess moisture, pruning and canopy management  (leaf thinning and shoot positioning) to improve circulation.

 

• Timing - During ripening
• Impact: Leads to flavor dilution and increases the risk of rot or fungal diseases.
• Wine Quality Issues:
  • Flavor Dilution: Excess water causes grapes to swell, reducing sugar concentration and diluting flavors. This can lead to weaker, less expressive wines with lower alcohol potential.
  • Fungal Diseases/Rot: Wet conditions encourage botrytis (noble rot or gray rot), mildew, and other fungal infections. Certain grapes with thin skins (Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Grenache) are highly susceptible to rot.
• Winemaker Adaptations: Selective Harvesting: Picking only the best, least-affected grapes. Leaf Thinning & Canopy Management: Ensuring good air circulation to prevent disease. Delaying Harvest (if possible): Letting grapes dry out after rain before picking.

 

• Is Excess Rainfall All Bad?
  • Restores vine health in drought years – In a vintage like 2022 Bordeaux, late-August rains helped replenish water-stressed vines, leading to better-balanced wines.
  • Encourages noble rot in certain grapes – In Sauternes, late rain and humidity promote botrytis, which concentrates sugars in the grapes, producing world-class sweet wines.

Drought & Heat Waves

• Impact: 
  • Severe drought can cause vines to shut down, stalling ripening and producing harsh tannins.
  • Too much heat can cause over-ripening, leading to high sugar levels, lower acidity, and unbalanced wines.
• Wine Quality Issues:
  • High Alcohol: Heat accelerates sugar accumulation, leading to wines with higher alcohol levels. If ripening happens too quickly, tannins and acidity may not develop in balance, resulting in wines that feel heavy or unstructured.
  • Flabby Wines & Limited Aging Potential: Because acidity is essential for freshness and aging potential, excess heat can cause acidity levels to drop, making wines taste flabby or overly ripe.
  • Smaller Yields & High Tannins: Vines under extreme heat close their stomata (tiny leaf pores) to conserve water, stalling ripening. Prolonged drought leads to smaller berries, which intensifies flavors but can also increase tannin concentration in red wines.
  • Bitter Tannins & Cooked Flavors: Direct exposure to intense sunlight can burn grape skins, leading to bitter tannins and undesirable “cooked” fruit flavors.
• Winemaker Adaptations: Canopy Management - strategic leaf removal and trellising to provide more afternoon shade. Irrigation Management - controlled water application and drip irrigation. Soil Adaptations - mulching and cover crops help retain moisture, reduce soil evaporation, and regulate root zone temperature. Vineyard cooling techniques - misting to reduce temperatures and shade cloths to reduce direct sun exposure and heat stress. Harvesting adjustments - harvesting earlier to preserve acidity and balance and harvesting at night to reduce temperature shock and preserve aromatic compounds. 

 

• Is Sunlight the Same as Heat?

Heat and sunlight interact, but they affect vines differently:

Harvest Conditions

The weather during harvest is just as critical as the growing season. Ideal conditions are dry and mild, allowing grapes to be picked at optimal ripeness. However:

• Heavy rain at harvest can cause grapes to swell, leading to diluted flavors and rot.
• Excessive heat can result in rapid sugar accumulation, meaning grapes may be picked before they develop full flavor complexity.
• Sudden cold spells can slow down ripening, affecting tannin development and structure.

Grape Ripeness and Balance

A successful vintage depends on the balance of sugar, acidity, tannins, and phenolic compounds, which is largely influenced by the weather of the growing season. The best wines come from grapes that have ripened slowly and evenly:

• Too much heat and sun → Leads to excessive sugar and alcohol, reducing freshness.
• Too little warmth and sunlight → Causes underripeness, overly acidic wines.
• Poor diurnal shifts (temperature swings between day and night) → Wines lack complexity and aging potential.

Disease and Pest Pressure

Vineyards are constantly at risk from pests and diseases, which are heavily influenced by weather conditions:

• High humidity and rainfall → Encourage fungal diseases like mildew and botrytis, which can destroy crops.
• Heat waves and drought → Reduce disease pressure but can cause stressed vines and overripe fruit.
• Insects and birds → Target weakened or damaged grapes, harming yields.

Final Thoughts

Experienced winemakers will do everything in their power to produce a good vintage, as that is the only thing they can truly control when making a complex wine that showcases the grape’s unique qualities and the terroir of the region. However, while they have full control once the grapes are harvested, Mother Nature dictates the quality of grapes they have to work with. 

Paying attention to the weather of a vintage allows a consumer to understand what the quality of wine to expect and whether to drink it or age it. Some producers have such high quality standards, that if that vintage doesn’t meet the standards of their flagship wine, it will often get blended into their second tier - first tier grapes from a less desirable vintage in a second tier wine is a bargain.

For example, the La Rioja’s second tier label - Vina Alberdi - benefitted from the grapes not being “destined for the long haul” for the 2018 vintage. The 2018 Vina Alberdi Reserva received all the grapes destined to for the famed 890 and 904 wines making the 2018 Vina Alberdi Reserva a steal. 

Next time you're selecting a wine, check the vintage—it's more than just a number on the label. Whether you're investing in a bottle to age or looking for something ready to enjoy, a little vintage knowledge goes a long way.