Wine Vintages

Vintage-What is it and how important is it?

The vintage of a wine is the year the grapes were harvested. How Important is the vintage of a wine? It can be very important. I hate it when I visit a liquor store and see a card above a bottle of wine with a stellar review from Wine Spectator or Robert Parker, only to find out that the wine below the card is not the same vintage as the one praised lavishly above. I’ve even had a few words with owners who tried to tell me there was no difference. No difference between a year pummeled by rain, fires, and other environmental changes and one in which Mother Nature was kinder, gentler, and more supportive to the growth of the grapes?

The amount of sunshine during the growing season and amount of rain (especially during the harvesting period) are probably the two most important factors in whether or not a vintage will be a good one. Of course fires (like those recently in parts of California) and storms (even here in New Jersey) can have a catastrophic effect on a given winery that might have been in the right place, but at the wrong time.

Barring a catastrophic meteorological event, if a wine region has a pretty stable weather pattern year after year, there may only be small differences in vintages. But for those that have a diverse geography (mountains and valleys) or other causes for larger variability in weather from one year to another, you need only peruse vintage charts provided in Wine Spectator and elsewhere, to see the difference between one vintage and another.

However, even in a state like New Jersey, which is relatively small and without a great deal of terrain diversity, there are vintages that stand out. I remember attending a New Jersey Winemakers Co-Op event, in which all of the winemakers talked about how good their harvests were that year. It was 2019. Sure enough, when the 2019’s began to become available, I saw that this was not just hype, but a truly terrific year. Most of these wines started to become available in 2020 (whites and some unoaked reds), though some of the heartier reds (aged in oak a bit longer) became available in 2021. Fortunately, I still have a few 2019 vintage New Jersey wines. These are shown in the photo at the top of this post. My 2019 New Jersey white wines are just a memory, but I will remember many of them as being among my favorites.

Non Vintage Wines

A non vintage wine is a wine in which there is a blend of vintages-sometimes of the same grape variety, sometimes utilizing a blend of different varieties. Often non vintage blends offer a good deal for the consumer-the blend allows the winemaker to use grapes from a more challenging vintage and blend it with a better one that can smooth out the rough edges of the other. Perhaps the first vintage lacked sufficient sunshine to produce grapes sufficiently ripe, while the second vintage had plenty of sunshine. With the artistry of a good winemaker, the result could be a “Goldilocks Effect.” The blend may even be sold at a discount, if the vintner was able to sell more wine from a challenging vintage than expected.

My NJ Wine of the Week

My pick this week is also a 2019 NJ wine: Hawk Haven Vineyards 2019 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. This medium to full-bodied Cab has notes of chocolate and cherry, with a delicious, long finish. After significant aeration, it opened beautifully and showed smooth tannins, but with enough structure to cellar for several more years.

Coming Attractions

• Striped Lion Distillery
• Terra Nonno Winery Winter 2023

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