Vintage Wine

The vintage of a wine is the year that the grapes were harvested and is displayed on almost all wine labels. The quality of a vintage is determined by specific climatic conditions within a region for that year. Vintage charts are used to give a general idea to the quality of wine that can be expected.

Alongside a good vintage, there are other ways to establish whether a wine will meet your expectations. Wine is legally classified in most European countries, where often a tierred apellation system is used to determine the quality of the wine.

In France there are four tiers; AOC (Premier), VDQS, vin de pays and vin de table. In Italy the tiers are DOCG (Premier), DOC, IGT vino de tavola. Spain has three distinct tiers which are DO (Premier), vino de la tierra and vino de mesa. Germany too has four tiers that are; QmP (Premier), QbA, Landwein and Tafelwein. These symbols will be displayed on all quality wines from these countries, with the exception of the Rioja, Burgundy and Bordeaux regions that have their own scoring systems.

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