Vintage Variation

When you look at a wine label you will normally see a year: WSET explains that this is the vintage, the year the grapes were picked. The weather in the vineyard during a given year affects the health and quality of the fruit, and WSET notes that, with all the hazards growers face, some vintages produce healthier, tastier fruit than others. Jones (GuildSomm) lists the ways climate variability works, depending on the region: cold extremes in winter, frost in spring and fall, high temperature events in summer, extreme rain or hail, and drought. Variation shows up in volume as well as quality: the OIV's October 2017 press release estimated world wine production at 246.7 mhl, one of the lowest levels for several decades, and attributed the drop to climate hazards in the main producing countries.

• WSET: in cooler, cloudier years grapes won't get as ripe as in warmer, sunnier years, but too much heat can lead to overly jammy flavours or unpleasantly high alcohol levels
• WSET: too much rain close to the harvest can make grapes taste watery and dilute, extreme drought can cause the vine to shut down, and overly damp and humid years can bring rot
• WSET: a harsh spring frost can wreak havoc with yield, and a hailstorm can destroy a healthy crop of grapes within minutes
• Jones (GuildSomm): even when a variety is planted in its optimum zone, vintage variations in weather and climate can drive large differences in fruit production and wine quality

WSET notes that for some wines the vintage affects not only the quality of what is in the bottle but also the price paid for it. WSET describes two responses. Many larger brands blend wines from multiple vineyards or even regions to achieve consistency, so that the customer is unlikely to notice differences between vintages. Other producers, especially smaller producers and those focused on premium wines, embrace vintage variation, which WSET says means the style, quality and price of the same wine can be notably different from one year to the next. In Bordeaux the en primeur system also absorbs vintage risk: Decanter's buying guide explains that by selling to négociants, the châteaux effectively spread the risk of bad vintages.

• WSET: a great vintage is one where that year's weather was ideal for producing healthy grapes with optimal ripeness for the style of wine being made
• Decanter: négociants are more or less obliged to buy what the châteaux sell, because refusing in a bad year risks forfeiting their allocation for the next year, which may be a great year
• Decanter: en primeur sales give the châteaux a ready source of cash that they would otherwise not recoup until the wine was bottled and sold
• Colin Hay, writing Decanter's en primeur buying guide, cautions that most buyers will not make much money, if any, from their en primeur purchases

Jones (GuildSomm) describes the two directions a vintage can miss in: if the vintage is too cool, lower sugar levels, unripe flavors and unbalanced wines result; if it is too warm, the result is lower acid retention, overripe flavors and unbalanced wines. He adds that, in general, the less day-to-day temperature variability leading up to harvest, the better the wine quality. For Bordeaux, WSET describes the best vintages as years with gentle heat through the growing season, sufficient rainfall, and fine, relatively dry and warm autumns that allow steady and complete ripening, giving ripe, healthy fruit with a balance of tannins, sugar and acidity that lets the wines age for a long time. In Champagne, champagne.fr says the finest vintages come from grapes that have reached a subtle balance between acidity and sugar levels, with sunlight and rainfall pivotal to both.

• Jones (GuildSomm): evidence suggests average night temperatures below 12°C (54°F) in the last month of the vintage suit cultivars that need cooler nights, and above 15°C (59°F) suit later-ripening varieties
• Decanter's 2003 Bordeaux Left Bank (Graves and Médoc) report: on soils that retain humidity the wines showed deep, rich colour with low acidity, and some growers who systematically de-leaf found their grapes turned to raisins
• Decanter's 2003 report on Bordeaux dry whites: the juice was high in sugars but very low in acidity, showing virtually no malic acidity
• IVDP describes the 2011 Vintage Ports as deep in colour, intense in aroma, fresh (good acidity) and structured on the palate

Decanter's 2003 harvest report for the Bordeaux Left Bank describes rainfall 170 mm below the 30-year average by the end of May, drought worsening over a summer of scorching heat, and one of the most untypical years on record; the so-called 'lesser' (heavier) soil areas appeared to do better than the poorer terroirs normally expected to produce the great wines. In Burgundy, picking began on 13 August on the southern fringes of the region, some ten days earlier than the previous record, set in 1893, and prolonged heat and drought drastically reduced yields right across the region. In the Douro, IVDP records 2011 as a year with a rainy winter, especially December, a warm, dry spring and a cool, dry summer, and the Symingtons told Decanter that strong winter rains in late 2010 had played a 'crucial' role. Port houses also show variation at the level of declarations: Decanter reported that 2009 was declared by Taylor, Fonseca and Croft but not by the Symington quartet of Dow, Graham, Warre and Cockburn, while 2011 was set to become the first widely declared year since 2007.

• Bordeaux 2003 (Decanter): on some forward Right Bank parcels, picking began on 19 August and finished by mid September, while in 2002 it had started on 19 September
• Champagne 2003 (Decanter): the harvest had the earliest start on record, on 18 August in the Côte des Bar village of Bligny, after what the report called the worst frost the appellation had ever seen, in April
• Champagne 2003 (Decanter): the CIVC predicted an average harvest of around 6,000 kilos per hectare, about half the normal quantity allowed
• Douro 2017 (IVDP): an extremely dry, very hot year with several heatwaves in spring and early summer, and a year of exceptional quality that IVDP says led to the largest Vintage declaration to date

Decanter's en primeur guide sets out how Bordeaux prices a new vintage. Every spring after the vintage, the cru classé properties produce barrel samples of the previous year's harvest, which are tasted and assessed by members of the international wine trade in Bordeaux. The châteaux then release a 'tranche', or proportion, of their total production at an opening price, sold in strict allocation to négociants, who then sell the en primeur offers. Consumers pay the opening price when their merchant makes the offer and usually receive the wine in spring or summer two years later. Not every estate stays in the system: Decanter reported that Château Latour would not sell wine en primeur from the 2012 vintage onwards, making 2011 its last en primeur campaign.

• Decanter: wines that are not classified growths, but whose quality and price justify a futures allocation, are also offered en primeur
• Decanter: en primeur offers are also found from Burgundy, the Rhône Valley, Italy, California and Australia
• Decanter: Latour's director Frederic Engerer said Château Latour and its second wine, Les Forts de Latour, would be sold through négociants when they believe the wines are becoming ready to drink
• Decanter: négociants said Latour had been reducing the amount of wine it sold en primeur over the previous decade, building up supplies at the château

How much the year matters depends on the place. WSET contrasts parts of Chile, with warm and dry summers almost every year, against Bordeaux, which experiences much greater vintage variation; even within the same village, some vineyards are more exposed to certain weather hazards. Champagne sits at the edge: champagne.fr gives Reims a latitude of 49°5 north and notes that quality grapes are generally considered difficult to obtain at the 50th parallel, so the weather can change drastically from one year to the next. Bordeaux, at around 45° latitude, lies at the cooler end of the latitudes suitable for grape growing; WSET says ripening was historically the challenge there but, with today's warmer climate, is now rarely an issue. In its November 2023 first estimate the OIV said Australia, Argentina, Chile, South Africa and Brazil recorded year-over-year variations of between -10% and -30%, and that 2023 world production would be the smallest since 1961.

• WSET: many Champagnes carry no vintage because the wine is blended from a few different years; the region's cool climate and variable weather mean grapes can't always ripen fully, and blending evens things out
• champagne.fr: the winemaker can add reserve wines, wines from previous years, to the current year's wine, and that some vintages contain up to 50% reserve wines
• champagne.fr: a Vintage Champagne carries its year's markers within it, and the choice to make one is up to the winemaker and the winemaker alone
• IVDP: Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) Port is a Ruby Port from a single year, chosen for its extremely high quality and bottled after ageing for four to six years in wood

Primary sources: https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/blog/2021/march/22/weather-wine-and-vintages, https://www.ivdp.pt/en/wines/port-wines/special-categories/, https://www.ivdp.pt/pt/vinhos/vinhos-do-porto/vintages/, https://www.champagne.fr/en/champagne-tasting/choosing-your-champagne/vintage-champagne, https://www.champagne.fr/en/champagne-tasting/type-of-champagne/non-vintage-brut, https://www.champagne.fr/en/from-vine-to-wine/wine-making/blending, https://www.oiv.int/public/medias/5681/en-communiqu-depresse-octobre-2017.pdf, https://www.oiv.int/press/2023-world-wine-production-expected-be-smallest-last-60-years, https://www.champagne.fr/en/about-champagne/the-champagne-terroir/champagne-and-its-climate, https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/blog/2022/july/14/what-makes-high-quality-bordeaux-wine. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/learn/vintage-guides/en-primeur/bordeaux/buying-en-primeur-wines-389075/, https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/chateau-latour-leaves-en-primeur-31707/, https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/port-2011-hailed-classic-as-producers-rush-to-declare-19670/, https://www.decanter.com/learn/vintage-guides/harvest-reports-2003-51182/, https://www.guildsomm.com/public_content/features/articles/b/gregory_jones/posts/climate-grapes-and-wine. Last verified 2026-09-28