Vintages? From bottling or harvest year?

Partagas · Post by **Partagas** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:50 am

We were having a discussion last night about wether a vintage on the label meant the year bottled or the year harvested.

Can somebody shed some light? My guess is harvest because you would then have to work out how long the wine had been oaked for to determine what year the grapes came from.

Cheers

Sam

Partagas · Post by **Partagas** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 11:25 am

Yeah thanks for that roo. I thought as much but we were discussing 1990 Grange and two mates thought it was not harvested in 1990. Just wouldn't make sense to me if it wasn't

GraemeG · Post by **GraemeG** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:12 pm

Partagas wrote:Yeah thanks for that roo. I thought as much but we were discussing 1990 Grange and two mates thought it was not harvested in 1990. Just wouldn't make sense to me if it wasn't

Confusion probably caused by the fact that up until recently, Grange also displayed the year of bottling on the label in addition to the vintage year.
Graeme

roughred · Post by **roughred** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:34 pm

Further confusing the situation is the prominent Bin 95. At first glance I think every Grange is from the 95 vintage...

Nayan · Post by **Nayan** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:49 pm

rooview wrote:Harvest.

It gets tricky when the harvest spans a year which I believe occurs with some wine (ice wine?).

Yep. Ice Wines get special dispensation and are allowed to display the vintage of the previous year (if they are harvested in January, say).

fivewells · Post by **fivewells** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:23 pm

Sam, from me as well Harvest, the next question could be

"...... will age well for next 7 years..." - now is this from Harvest or Bottling?

Regards Geoff

Daryl Douglas · Post by **Daryl Douglas** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:50 pm

fivewells wrote:Sam, from me as well Harvest, the next question could be

"...... will age well for next 7 years..." - now is this from Harvest or Bottling?

Regards Geoff

I take that one to mean from harvest but it could be from bottling. As vintage refers to year of harvest, that should be the base for all cellaring projections as well. "Will continue to improve for up to 7-10 years", I take to mean from vintage.

daz

Bick · Post by **Bick** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:44 am

I always take "will age well for.." statements as meaning from bottling. I understand that 100 Year Old Para will drink well for 20 years or so... which means its good to 2025 or beyond. Doesn't mean you should have drunk it in 1930! Perhaps it depends on thw wine though.