French wine vintages explained: how to choose a good year

One of the most misunderstood things about wine is the concept of vintage. The word is today associated with old, valuable things, like cars, clothing and décor. However, it originally comes from the Latin word for grape harvest, vindemia, which became vendange in French.

The core idea is the same. It is something tied to a specific moment in time, whose qualities are shaped by that moment. The vintage of a bottle of wine is the date shown on the label. That’s the year the grapes were harvested to make that wine.

There are no other consumables where vintage is as important as it is for wine. Most have a consume-by date. Whisky can be labelled by how long it was aged in cask, but we don’t know when it was actually made. Cheese may be labelled as 12 or 24 months but very rarely with the actual year of production. Olive oil, saké, Cognac, tea and honey all have vintage variation, but only true connoisseurs care about it.

Vintage is important for wine for two reasons. The first is to know how old the wine is, and the second is to know which year’s grape harvest was used and, therefore, what the relative quality or characteristics of the wine are likely to be. Both are sources of confusion to the average wine drinker.

A lot of people ask me how long they should keep a wine before drinking it. The answer is: “It depends.” It depends on the particular wine and the way it has been stored. The most important factor is whether the wine was made to improve with age or to be drunk young. 

The vast majority of wines today are in the latter category. Most white wines, almost all rosés, light red wines and those with soft, fruity flavours are all designed to be consumed within 1-4 years. There are very few mass-produced brands that improve with age. Even in the artisanal sector, most natural wines only go downhill. So why do we bother?

The reason people age wine is to allow it to develop more beautiful aromas, more complex flavours and nicer textures, and to display its terroir (environment) more clearly. There is also something special about opening a bottle that you have stored for many years.

To age well, wines need to have, first and foremost, good concentration. Then, for white wine, acidity or sweetness (or both) are required. Quality wines made from Riesling, Chenin blanc and cool-climate Chardonnay can develop in a positive way for 5-15 years. For red wines, tannin is the main component that makes the wine improve over time. Varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah provide age-worthy tannins, but so do other French wines from the Rhône, Languedoc-Roussillon and Southwest. Top Bordeaux and Northern Rhône reds will improve for 10-30 years.

When we talk of a great vintage, it means that the weather during the year was perfect for ripening the grapes without any negatives like frost, mould, mildew, hail, drought or heatwaves. Vines in France are very rarely irrigated, unlike in the New World, and it is prohibited for all Appellation d’Origine Protégée (AOP) wines. 

Rainfall is therefore very important. If vines don’t get enough water at the right time, they cannot ripen properly. Dry conditions in spring and summer can lead to unripe fruit, resulting in thinner, acidic wines with astringent tannins (for reds).

If there is too much rain during the growing season, mould and mildew will be more likely, and the vine shoots may grow too quickly and become too long. If the rain comes just before harvest, the grapes will swell with water and become diluted, and may even split, leading to rot.

Ripening is determined mainly by temperature. If the average temperatures are too low, the grapes won’t ripen fully and the resulting wines will display too much acidity and green tannins. On the other hand, if temperatures are higher than normal, the grapes can become overripe too soon, resulting in high-alcohol but simple-tasting wines. A long, slow ripening period allows more complex, rounder flavours to develop in the skins, leading to better wines. A perfect vintage is one with just the right amount of timely rainfall, combined with temperatures that ripen the grapes evenly.

There are other weather factors that can damage a vintage. Frost in spring can kill off the shoots, meaning the vines will not produce much fruit, or that they will only produce small bunches too late to ripen properly. Wind and rain in early summer can prevent the grape flowers from being fertilised, meaning that bunches will contain only a small number of grapes (known as coulure) or a lot of very small grapes (known as millerandage). Both of these conditions mean lower volumes. Hail can shred or damage the bunches.

All these factors can be managed or mitigated to some extent by the vigneron, at a cost. Decisions and choices made have a direct effect on the quantity and quality of the wine produced in a given year. Producers who strive for quality can make good wines even in a poor vintage, but producers who focus on quantity will see a fall in quality. A good vintage will not only allow the best producers to produce exceptional wines, it will also allow mediocre producers to make better ones.

As well as hoping for perfectly ripe fruit, vignerons also want a plentiful crop because, at the end of the day, more wine is better than less.

It is very rare that every region in France experiences a great vintage in a particular year. Each region will have experienced different weather conditions. Also, a warm year may be better for northern vignerons but worse for southern producers and vice versa. This is why it’s no good looking at the rating of a red Bordeaux vintage if you are buying a bottle of Chablis. You need to know whether the vintage was considered a good one in the region.

Finally, vintages are not simply good or bad. They give wines different characteristics – especially true for single estates. That is something that connoisseurs find fascinating, because they can taste the effect of that year’s weather on a particular region. But most consumers find it annoying because they generally like consistency. 

I hope this article helps you choose and store your wine more successfully, and appreciate vintage variation and the way it can affect a wine over its lifetime. I hope it makes you a bit more of a connoisseur.

Jonathan Hesford has a Postgraduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology from Lincoln University, New Zealand and is the owner, vigneron and winemaker of
Domaine Treloar in the Roussillon.
If you have questions on this wine column, email info@domainetreloar.com