There is much wisdom to be gained from vintage information, but wines should never be chosen using vintages as the sole criteria. Vintage information needs to be used in conjunction with background information on the winery whose wines you are considering. So said wine guru Robert Parker Jr, who himself publishes a vintage chart. He goes on to state that thin diluted, characterless wines from incompetent winemakers might even end up in the highly-rated category. Each year, the quality of wine produced is subject to weather conditions and in every decade, only certain years are declared to be great vintages.
Damp weather can further exacerbate the matter by causing fungus to grow and rot the grapes.
Vintage chart ratings, therefore, cover only the larger or important areas of a wine region and fail to include such weather details. So, a vintage chart produced for the region is merely a generalisation of the quality of wines produced by the majority. Extracted from The Sunday Times. You'll find what you need is just a click away. SPH AsiaOne Ltd. All rights reserved.