© by Nigel Lelew * This Month Morning Ellie! I fear that I haven't brought the good weather in with me this morning! But not to worry ... we're going to take a step through time as we talk about vintages ... It's that word that's used in the wine world ... but its acquired a number of different meanings to different people along the way! And don't worry I'm not going to bore you with long lists of good and bad years! * Vintages Ellie ... can I ask you what you think of when I use the word 'Vintage' ... that's put you on the spot again hasn't it! ... Lots of people think that Vintage somehow means quality and that if a wine is described as 'Vintage' then it must be good. Well what does the word Vintage actually mean ... well it simply means the year in which the grapes were harvested. So actually every year is a vintage. I've brought in the dictionary definition of Vintage too ... which goes 'the yield of a vineyard or vine-district for a particular season; the season for gathering grapes; the product of a particular year'. So any wine which is made solely from grapes from a particular vintage, or years harvest, can be called vintage wine and show the year of the vintage on its label ... .it really is as simple as that! So what does a vintage matter I hear you say ... well thats what I thought when I started getting interested in wine all those years ago! One of the first bottles that I ever really appreciated ... sniffed and tasted as we do on here Ellie ... was a brilliant red from South Africa. I liked it so much that I bought the same wine a few times and enjoyed it. Then unknowingly, because I hadn't been looking at, or particularly worrying about the vintage I went back again and bought another bottle. Same label, same wine, or so I thought without really reading the label. I opened the bottle and it was a completely different shade and density of red ... much lighter and far less density of colour. I tasted the wine and it was very different ... so I started to compare the labels. The one I liked had 13.5% alcohol and a particular year on the label ... the lighter wine was from the next years vintage and was 11% ... it really was a totally different wine. And ever since then I've taken notice of the vintage of a particular wine that I like. OK then what makes the difference. Well the weather is all-important. Get a year when the grapes grow and swell in the early summer rain and then ripen slowly in the sun until the early autumn without too much rain, especially just before the harvest, and you've got about the best grapes you could hope for. On the other hand have a wet summer and a wet spell just before the harvest and the grapes will be completely different ... the rainwater will get into the fruit through the roots of the vine, just before the harvest and dilute the natural sugars and concentration of juice in each berry ... and less natural sugar in the juice will mean a lower alcohol content ... and it will also mean that the concentration of the fruit flavour won't be in the grapes ... and the wine will most certainly be lighter in style if not down-right wishy-washy! The weather conditions during the year and especially just before the harvest really can make a huge difference to the wine. So are all wines vintage? No they're not. There are some good non-vintage wines around which means that they are made from grapes of different vintages ... Non-vintage champagne is a good example ... it doesn't mean that they are lower quality than vintage wines. In fact you could argue that non-vintage wines can be very much more consistent year on year, as they even out the differing quality of the grapes between vintages, by blending a range of vintages together to get a consistent alcohol content and taste. So don't be taken in by the fact the wine has a vintage on the label ... its not an absolute guarantee of quality ... it just tells you the year in which the grapes were harvested ... so when someone says that '1990 was a great year' ... it means that the weather conditions were good for grapes harvested in 1990 and that they were able to ripen fully and the juice in the fruit wasn't diluted by excessive rain. But to generalise between years doesn't always take into account how each vineyard has performed. One vineyard may have harvested their grapes a few days earlier than its next door neighbour and between one harvest and the neighbouring one, it may have rained heavily and diluted the later harvest ... so not all wines form a so called 'bad' vintage are bad ... and vice versa! ... It can actually be all down to the individual grower and exactly when he harvested his grapes! Don't forget ... if you like a particular wine ... take a note of its vintage and buy the same vintage next time ... shops sometimes mix vintages on the shelves when stocks of one vintage are running low and the more recent vintage is being brought in ... its not necessarily bad ... but just be aware ... a check on the alcohol content can tell you whether the wines are wildly different. The Tasting I have a red and a white to taste with you this morning. We'll start with the white which is a South African and it's a 1999 vintage ... yes this year. In the southern hemisphere the seasons are reversed compared with ours, so the grapes for this 1999 were harvested in March/April this year, and the new vintage wines are only just being released onto the market ... so this is one of the first of this years vintages ... it's a sort of Southern Hemisphere Beaujolais Nouveau! So this is Carisbrooke 1999 Chenin Blanc Chardonnay from Wine Rack, as the name suggests a blend with more Chenin Blanc than Chardonnay ... so lets get on with this one shall we ... * Colour It's a very pale colour which tells us it may have a fresh clean taste and that it's a young wine ... * Aroma OK give the glass a swirl and then take a big sniff ... that's a wonderful aroma of fresh melon fruit ... that's a great aroma ... lets see what the taste is ... * Taste OK lets take a glug ... mmmmm isn't that great ... fresh with that melon fruit coming through ... its got a long clean finish ... that's a brilliant white from South Africa for me whose grapes were picked from the vine just 6 months ago ... So that's Carisbrooke Chenin Blanc Chardonnay from Wine Rack at £3.99 and at the moment if you buy 3 bottles it will cost you just a tenner ... that's a great wine and a good omen for the 1999 vintage maybe! OK now lets look at the red which I've brought in this morning ... it's an Australian red it's from the 1998 vintage ... its Oxford Landing 1998 Merlot ... so its made from 100% Merlot grapes ... lets pour this one out and see what we think ... * Colour Pour this wine into the glass ... it's a bit like a dense Ribena ... and that kind of density is a good sign ... couple that with the 13% alcohol content of this wine and its looking good already! * Aroma Give this one a swirl and get the nose in ... beneath the minty oak aroma theres some rich red plum fruit in there ... * Taste OK lets take a glug ... theres some warmth that hits you and then theres a quick flash of minty oak before the red fruit comes through ... theres some smooth tannin in there as well ... and again this is the second wine which has a huge length on the finish ... that's a brilliantly balanced Australian Merlot ... who said Australia couldn't produce Merlot ... they certainly can! That's Oxford Landing 1998 Merlot from Wine Rack at £5.99 ... a really brilliant red. * Next Month Next month Ellie we're going to look at what is the biggest and most comprehensive wine tasting in the world, the International Wine Challenge held in London ... yours truly was there tasting with the best ... and we'll be tasting a couple of the winners on air too ... and they don't cost a fortune either!
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