Vintages

What is all this talk about vintages and why are they so important?

A vintage wine is basically a wine of a particular year. Nonvintage wines are ordinarily a blend from several years. In addition to these, there are the condemned years. The weather in those censured years did not permit the grapes to reach full maturity, and the resulting wines did not reach excellent quality.

Vintage wines usually cost more than blended wines and both cost more than wines from condemned years. To get the most for your money, investigate the nonvintage wines and those of the condemned years carefully. They can be excellent.