Wood Influence: Vintage

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

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The character of individual vintage years also affects how they react to wood and therefore the influence of any wood on a wine’s flavour. Wines, especially red wines, vary so much from vintage to vintage that it is impossible to specify the perfect barrel for a given wine. For this reason, many winemakers order a range of different wood types and with variation of toast in anticipation of each harvest.