Vintage Weather
1998 across the wine world
Every region on record for 1998, read the same way: temperature, rain, harvest timing, and the events that shaped the season.
Northern hemisphere
Scorching August heat and well-timed picking made this a Right Bank triumph.
Frost, oidium, and heat made deeply colored, tannic reds and weak whites.
Frost, record heat, and heavy rain made a wild, ultimately balanced year.
April frost slashed yields; a hot dry summer built dense, ageworthy wines.
A hot August and rainy autumn still produced a solid, all-round vintage.
One of the hottest summers on record built a refined, balanced wine.
A hot, dry summer and September rain split early and late pickers.
Mildew cut yields, then extreme heat and harvest rain made a mixed year.
A hot, dry summer and small crop built concentrated, age-worthy wines.
El Nino brought a wet, uneven season, but wines aged with high acidity.
Tiny yields and ripe fruit made one of the decade's most concentrated years.
A cold, wet El Nino year with mildew pressure made surprisingly age-worthy wines.
One of the hottest seasons on record made deeply concentrated, powerful reds.
Southern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere: the vintage year is the harvest year, so the growing season began in the previous calendar year (spring in September to October, harvest in February to April of the vintage year).
A dry, early season that ended in a record crush and a great red vintage.