Rumblings on Wine Part 11,779 - Vintage Tyranny

[David M. Bueker]

Been a bit since I did this, but I have something rattling around in my head.

Vintages have been on my mind, largely because Galloni did a pretty brutal take down of 2018 in Piemonte. I am no expert in that area, and in fact it was Antonio himself who sparked much of my interest in the region, after sitting with him at an offline 2000 years ago (at least it seems that long ago). I have opened a few 2018s, and it's not a monument, but it's also not a disaster. I think we have lost perspective because of the avalanche of riches that has come our way in the last 20+, climate changed, years. There's also the "I only want the great vintages" phenomenon, where anything that is not from a "great" year is relegated to "off vintage" status. With rare exceptions, even the "middling" recent vintages from most wine regions would hold a place of price in the 1960s or 1970s. Forgetting personal stylistic preferences, years like 2011 in Napa, 2014 in the Mosel, 2018 in the Cote d'Or, and yes 2018 in Piemonte would be greeted with rounds of applause by wine drinkers of 1968 (to pick a vintage that was brutal in many - but not all - regions).

I like vintage variation. I like that the same wine does not taste exactly the same from 2011, 2012, and 2013. The "flaws" of a vintage, unless truly fatal (e.g., smoke taint, or some unhealthy rot) are often markers that give me a reminder of that time. Maybe I will drink up the wines sooner rather than later. Maybe I will serve them with Tuesday night leftovers rather than Sunday dinner, but they will still serve a completely appropriate and valuable role of a glass of wine at the dinner table. Perhaps being smaller they will fit with less assertive foods. That may even be better.

Not every year is the same. I know it can feel that way as we continue to battle COVID and other ills of the world, but there are differences. People overcome great challenges. Winemaking is better now than it used to be. Vineyard care is better. Transport is (mostly) better. The ups and downs than happen from vintage to vintage are worth celebrating. They are an artifact of the year, and the hard work that went into growing the grapes and creating the wine.

Yes, the whole logic of ranking vintages is crazy. Maybe it made more sense in the past when there was such a wide spread in quality, but as you note, these days the quality is generally high every year. And in that kind of world, we have the luxury of focusing on vintage character. Which is very important and should be celebrated as much as possible! But not in a ranking kind of way. (Although of course each individual will have preferences)

[David M. Bueker]

Exactly. I have no issue with people preferring a certain style of vintage, but the passive-aggressive things like “solar vintage” as if the sun is bad drive me nuts. There’s a discussion going on elsewhere on the wine web about ranking 2016-2020 Burgundy vintages. As if we truly know yet. As if “Burgundy” the temple of terroir is one vintage from Chablis to the Macon. Grrrrrrr…

There’s a discussion going on Eason the wine web about ranking 2016-2020 Burgundy vintages.

I saw that. Always good for a chuckle.

Berserkers has a lot of traffic and some good posters. But there's definitely a strong contingent of the naive status seekers who approach things completely differently.

As if “Burgundy” the temple of terroir is one vintage from Chablis to the Macon. Grrrrrrr…

You're going to be telling me next that Chablis and Macon are actually part of Burgundy

[David M. Bueker]

Hence the quotes.

More to the point, there is a significant subset of supposed knowledgeable wine lovers who base their vintage understanding on a particular location (e.g., the Cote d'Or, Napa Valley), and extend that region's vintage conditions to the broader winegrowing area. I can't count how many times I have seen people write off all of California in 2020 because of smoke issues in Napa and Sonoma. Santa Barbara are wines are being written off because "California had wildfires." The same thing happens with Burgundy generalizations, leading to very misleading assessments of a much wider set of wines than is even remotely applicable.

[Jenise]

Yes, the whole logic of ranking vintages is crazy. Maybe it made more sense in the past when there was such a wide spread in quality

To the extent it made sense to the serious wine buyer, it never made sense to the vignerons. They have to sell wine every year whether the Berserkers buy it or not.

As a Burgundy enthusiast I learned long ago the importance of the producer over the vintage ranking. The wines in my cellar that I'm most proud of are the successful-to-great gems from what are supposedly bad vintages. This is especially true in Burgundy, but it applies elsewhere as well.

-Paul W.

It's interesting and scary that I think now and certainly in the future, the 'best', highly rated vintages will be cool vintages: in the very near past, warm or hot vintages were always seen as the 'best, but are now almost - but not always and not in all wine regions - a given in many regions. So we've moved quite quickly from hot=good vintage to cool=good vintage.

The other variable that has quickly become an issue are extreme events. Frost always existed as an issue in many regions, but now weather events are more extreme and frequent and fire/smoke have become and even bigger risk. So good vintages are now more equated with no extreme events than in the recent past.

I'm with David and Rahsaan in this. Even in the pre-1980s period when "bad" vintages were much more common, it made much more sense to concentrate on vintage character rather than on numerical ratings. Serious wine lovers knew that individual estates often managed to make excellent wines in "off" years. I learnt that early when my father received a case of La Mission Haut-Brion 1951 (IIRC); I was very scathing about it until I tasted the wine. Wine literature from that period and even further back, like the writings of Prof. Saintsbury, André Simon and Michael Broadbent, also makes clear the importance of vintage character.

One of my biggest embarrassments in a restaurant was watching one of my brothers-in-law pulling a vintage chart from his pocket and berating the sommelier for recommending a wine from a "mediocre" year.

One of my biggest embarrassments in a restaurant was watching one of my brothers-in-law pulling a vintage chart from his pocket and berating the sommelier for recommending a wine from a "mediocre" year.

Wow! These days it would be pulling up a website/app on your phone.

[David M. Bueker]

At one of the last business dinners I attended pre-COVID, I picked a couple of really good, but not everyday (i.e., not Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Sauvignon Blanc) wines. My colleague asked what it said about them on Delectable. I stared him down so hard.

Regarding extreme weather events, I'd always wondered why hail damage was always such a problem. Surely the top-end producers could afford to put tarps over the vines if hail is expected? But I'm told that is prohibited by French AOC regulations.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Indeed it is prohibited. Covering the ground with plastic in the event of adverse rain at harvest is also prohibited. Someone tried that years ago and lost the AOC.

Nice post David!
"I like vintage variation. I like that the same wine does not taste exactly the same...."

I'll go one step further. I welcome subtle "bottle variation" (the wine is "alive").

Salute

[David M. Bueker]

Not sure I am so much a fan of bottle “variation” as I would prefer that two bottles from a case, opened in very close proximity be quite close in expression (yay, DIAM!). Rather I am a big fan of bottle evolution, where even several months can result in a different experience.

Indeed it is prohibited. Covering the ground with plastic in the event of adverse rain at harvest is also prohibited. Someone tried that years ago and lost the AOC.

Irrigation/watering is prohibited, too. But I was amused/bemused by a sight I saw while driving up the Rhone valley on a tasting trip. We passed a lot of land that was mixed vineyard and olive orchard. Irrigation is allowed for the olive trees, and there were a lot of sprinklers in use. But gosh darn it, some of them were spraying some of the vines, too, and there of course was runoff from the treed areas to the rows of vines.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Watering/irrigation of newly planted vines is allowed, though I suspect the vines near the olive trees were not new.