Vintage Old Wine

A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and declare vintage Port in their best years.

From this tradition, a common, though incorrect, usage applies the term to any wine that is perceived to be particularly old or of a particularly high quality.

In wine produced on the colder limits of wine production, vintage is often very important, because some seasons will be much warmer and produce riper grapes and better wine for people to drink. On the other hand, a poor growing season can lead to grapes low in sugar, which lowers the quality of the resulting wine.

The magic of Vintage port is different in every phase: as a young wine it captures the youthful fruit characters, then after  20 years or more the effects of the slow bottle age integration are revealed and finally after many decades the spirit dominates the wine. Vintage Port is amazing in all the three phases.

Maturation in the bottle is more reductive than cask ageing and the wine that results has a fruitiness and power which develops in the traditional ageing vessel, the classic, thick, black port bottle.

Wines of superior vintages from prestigious producers and regions will often command much higher prices than those from average vintages. This is especially the case if wines are likely to improve further with some age in the old bottle. Some wines are only labeled with a vintage in better-than-average years, to maintain their quality and reputation, the old wine is a vintage port wine.

If there is a special wine that you desire, or a number of wines that you have been wishing for,

of any year, please contact us today!