Food - Drink
Why Vintage Is Less Important When It Comes To Californian Wines
By KAREN HART
If you’re a budding wine fan, looking at a wine’s vintage is a good place to start when selecting a bottle. Vintage is the year in which the grapes were harvested, and while weather can affect certain wines, it doesn’t have the same effect on California wines.
Vintages don’t matter as much for Californian wines, because the wine produced in the state is typically a good vintage. Even with all the natural disasters California is prone to, the grapes produced in the state continue to thrive, producing consistently good bottles of wine. Instead of the vintage, it’s best to look at price as an indicator of quality when purchasing Californian wine.
In fact, because vintages hardly matter anymore, some people have made the case for “non-vintage” wines. Wine Spectator explains that similar to non-vintage Champagne — which is blended from several different years of grapes — the same can be achieved with wine, leading to a consistent drinking experience, and some wines that age better in the long run.
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