Vintage Explorer
Read the year, not just the rating.
Vintage gets much more useful when you stop asking “Was 2022 good?” and start asking “What happened in 2022, here?”
Start with the region
Ask what normally drives the region — then look at how this particular year differed. A wet harvest means something very different in Bordeaux from a dry high-altitude region.
Explore
Follow the growing season
Budburst, flowering, summer heat, water and harvest conditions tell you far more than a single vintage score.
Explore
Compare like with like
The cleanest comparison is often the same producer or vineyard across two years. That keeps more of the variables steady.
Explore
Before you call it a good vintage
Seven questions beat one suspiciously tidy score.
A single number is wonderfully convenient and usually far too confident. Ask these instead and the year starts to look like weather, place and timing rather than a league table.
Was spring unusually early or late?
Was there frost after budburst?
How did flowering and fruit set go?
Was summer warm, cool, wet or very dry?
Did nights stay cool enough to slow things down?
Was harvest rushed by rain, heat or disease pressure?
Did producers have freedom to choose when to pick?
Vintage without place is mostly noise.
A year only starts to mean something once you pin it to a place. “2018” in Bordeaux, Barolo and Marlborough are three entirely different stories wearing the same number.
Choose a region