Why do French wines pay special attention to the year?

Did you know that wines of different vintages vary greatly in quality and taste? Some wines vary greatly from year to year, but others don't seem to be affected by age. Why is that? And what about the "best years"?

Vintage is the unique mark of a wine. ​At the banquet, you can also pay attention to Maotai, Wuliangye and other white spirits, beer, whiskey, brandy, their bottle labels, which are not marked "year".

Therefore, the wine will often boast, "I am a grateful person. I am grateful for the 'year' that I picked from the vine. Since then, I have the 'year' on the bottle and remember it in my heart."

But is this really the case?

Have you ever heard of people buying rapeseed oil, honey, soy sauce and so on also paying attention to the "year" two words? With the exception of wine, there seems to be no other product with such an obsessive focus on vintage. In fact, it also shows how weak and powerless the wine industry is in the face of the changing weather 39bet-xsmb-xổ số tây ninh-xổ số binh phước-xổ số binh dương-xổ số đồng nai.

The potential of a wine is so closely linked to the state of the vintage. For wine lovers, "vintage" is a must-have that can't be ignored.

cd04c7d679c52138cd9f645eb27ed6c4Vintage? Are all the grapes picked in the same year?

We tend to think that all the grapes in a wine were picked in the same year. But what winemakers and merchants won't tell you is that some winemaking countries also have laws that allow "a small amount of other vintages to be mixed in."

Chilean and South African wines, for example, can be considered "year" as long as more than 75 percent of the wine grapes come from the same year.

In addition, the effect of vintage on wine varies from region to region. For wine regions with variable weather, such as Bordeaux and Burgundy in France, Rioja and Lower Gulf in Spain, Germany, New Zealand and northern Italy, weather conditions can vary greatly from year to year, and the effect of vintage on wine is more obvious.

In some regions with more stable weather conditions, such as California, southern France, central Spain, Argentina and Portugal, there is not much difference between vintages and the influence of vintage is not as important.

It's also worth noting that for mass-produced low - and mid-price wines, you don't need to pay much attention to the vintage. The aging potential and collection value of this kind of wine are not high, and most producers will focus on maintaining the consistency of quality and style in the production of this kind of wine, so the reflection of the vintage difference in this kind of wine is not obvious.

The vintages to watch are high-end wines, such as the Lafite mentioned at the beginning of the article. Especially for collectors, high-end wines of good years tend to have a lot of room for appreciation after aging, while off-year wine quality and aging potential may be slightly inferior, and the collection value is quite different.

Year Difference Tips:

Because the seasons in the southern and northern hemispheres are separated by a full six months, even a bad year for France can be a good year for Australia in the southern hemisphere.

A bad vintage for red wines can sometimes be a good vintage for white wines because of the variety: the cooler climate helps to develop freshness and acidity.

If you prefer big, fruity wines and want to try something from France or Oregon, try some of the hotter vintages.

Sometimes it takes a while for a wine to wake up. If you have a "bad" vintage from a famous house, wait a few years to open it and taste it. It might taste much better.

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