Imagine a situation that is very common: You come to your favorite store or restaurant and choose the bottle of wine you want to enjoy. What will you look at next after name? We're pretty sure you'll stop and look at the wine harvesting And, if you're more or less familiar with wines, you probably have a reasonable question: ‘What does the indication of the year of the wine mean on the label?’ Well, in today's post we are going to talk about it.
Harvesting is the process of harvesting grapes and transferring them upon arrival. Harvest is also synonymous with vintage, a date that refers to the year of the harvest. Keep in mind that the harvest year has nothing to do with when it goes on sale.
The year of the wine began to be marked on the bottles almost at the same time that they began to be used as storage tanks. Until they came up with a bottle, the ancient Egyptians wrote hieroglyphs of amphorae, indicating the oenologist and the year of production. From that very moment, wine critics, collectors and winemakers began to invent ways to determine the quality of the drink per year.
Harvest is key information, especially in Europe, because here the irregular climate favors or adverse the results of each add, reflecting the quality, reputation and price of the wines.
Like other crops, grapes are affected by many factors. In the same year, the same grape variety grown in neighboring regions may differ significantly. In this sense, some vintages are recognized as very good and others simply as good.
If, for example, climate in one of the years it was sufficiently hot during the day, cool at night and the humidity was low during the ripening of the grapes, it is very likely that the harvest will be excellent. At the time of collection, there will be many grapes, and they will be ripe and tasty. So it will not be difficult to make a good wine with such grapes.
On the other hand, if the climate is rainy and humid during the ripening of the grapes, it is most likely that the harvest is bad and the grapes themselves do not have time to ripen and obtain juice. This harvest will be a bad or “difficult” wine harvest.
And snow, how does it affect the vine? Contrary to popular belief, snow can benefit vineyards. For example, snow ensures the disinfection of the vineyard, since cold and low temperatures mean a decrease in the number of pests. In addition, snow and low temperatures make it easier for the vine to recover from possible injuries it may have received during pruning. Snow moistens the soil, which can also be beneficial for vineyards. At the same time, the absence of cold in the months in which the cold should appear can cause serious alterations in the biological behaviour of the vine, including a decrease in the number of vine shoots and a delay in the ripening of the grape.
Some critics The wines are not limited to assessing the harvest solely on the basis of the climate. Consider the year of harvest in development: He tests it in the very young first year, then, if it's promising, he comes back to it later and reassesses it.
Does this mean that one particular vintage on the label is actually better than others for the average inexperienced wine lover? Not at all.
Many wine lovers say that there are no bad vintages, there are many types of winemakers. And we'd like to agree to this.
Tasters determine a good harvest as often as you guess the probability of “face” or “cross” on a coin when turning.
In his research, Professor Roman Weil of the University of Chicago investigated whether experienced tasters can really notice the difference in harvests. The experiment involved people versed in wine, and they took high-quality samples from $40, which earned Robert Parker ratings from bad to good.
In the end, they guessed as often as when they played a draw: The good harvests of the mediocre ones could be distinguished with a blind tasting of a few.
The harvest year is perhaps the most important only for collectors, as it could double or triple the price of a bottle in the future. But not many of us are wine collectors, and for that reason, you shouldn't focus too much on the harvest when you're just choosing a good wine to drink at dinner tonight.
The harvest of a good year, when the weather was perfect, makes it quite easy to make a great wine. Then you can hear that one from the year 2010 is great.
But if the production takes care of the technology and the quality of the future product as much as in the vineyard, then the harvest will not be important: wine will still be good. Especially when it comes to massive and non-expensive wines, bought for immediate consumption and not for collection.
Wines can vary in taste from year to year, but that doesn't make one wine better than another. If you are sure that your favorite winery is making an excellent wine, believe me, the quality of the product will not depend on the year of production. Because any year will be good for a good winemaker.
In Vegatolosa we have a great variety of wines, which thanks to the climate of our region, we have been recognized on numerous occasions as one of the best wines in the region. So do not hesitate to visit our online shop You will be surprised with our wines!
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