Vintage Variation

What is vintage variation?

In the northern hemisphere there is one shot a year at growing grapes for winemaking. This growing season takes place between May and harvest, sometime in the fall. After harvest vines are pruned down and grow back the following year when the next growing season comes around. And so the cycle goes, year after year.

Not unlike us humans, as the vines age they become increasingly complex. And if the yield is kept low, the fruit often becomes more concentrated. And just like us, age is a risk factor for frailty and disease. But generally speaking, each trip around the sun will bring a new crop of grapes with which to make wine.

The weather through the growing season in large part determines how a wine will turn out, and the winemaker’s job is to receive what nature offers up and to transform the grapes into wine.

There is a old saying that wine is made in the vineyard and this is described and encapsulated by the term vintage variation.

Sometimes that weather will be cool and damp and the resulting wine might be higher in acid than normal. Or in some cases, more dilute.

If the weather trends towards hot and dry, maybe the wines will be richer in concentration with higher alcohol and perhaps a little lower in acid.

All of this can be tasted directly in the wines, and a thread should be evident amongst varieties from individual vineyards and more broadly from the surrounding region.

Sometimes a cooler damp vintage will result in less wine produced, while a warmer vintage might provide more.

One of the winemaker’s most important decisions is when to pick the grapes. This is a precise, considered decision, as there are numerous factors at play. Maybe there is rain in the forecast and they need to get the grapes off the vines before it storms. Maybe there is a heatwave pending and the grapes are at risk of losing their acidity. The decision can be nuanced. For example, if the grapes are grown in a warmer clime and the winemaker envisions a darkly coloured full bodied wine, maybe the grapes are left on the vine a few weeks longer to promote ripening and increased sugar content. Sugar + yeast = alcohol and carbon dioxide. So riper grapes confer more sugar and greater potential for alcohol.

The colour will come from the skins, and the thicker the skin the deeper the colour. This is mostly a result of the grape variety itself. For example, cabernet sauvignon has thicker skin relative to pinot noir so it is naturally darker in colour, a feature the winemaker can accentuate by leaving the grapes to hang a little longer and thereafter with  a few choices in the winery to continue to deepen the colour.

Winemaking involves any number of decisions. The first is finding the right place to plant vines, and then choosing which grapes to plant. But first and foremost, winemaking is a science and art of farming, and like all agricultural pursuits, is at that mercy of Mother nature who ultimately has the final say.