Vintage Wine

Vintage wines are generally made from grapes of a single year's harvest of a single variety, and are dated accordingly. Many wines improve in flavor as they age and so wine enthusiasts often save bottles of a favorite vintage wine to enjoy in a few years. For most types of wine, the best-quality grapes and the most care in winemaking are employed on vintage wines.

A vintage wine is generally made in a single batch and thus each bottle from a particular vintage will taste the same, climactic factors tend to change the character of vintage wines grown from the same vines somewhat from year to year. Good vintages, particularly of premium grapes, therefore often sell for much more than average years. Some vintage wines are only made in better-than-average years. Wines such as White Zinfandels, which don't age well, are made to be drunk immediately and are not labeled with a vintage year.