Vintage

Definition - What does Vintage mean?

The term Vintage is derived from the word "Vin" which means wine in french. It refers to the year of the grape harvest and for the production year of the wine made from those harvested varietals. A wine that is labeled Vintage should only be made by the grapes that were grown and harvested from the vintage year specified on the label.

WineFrog explains Vintage

Quite a few wine regions allow a small percentage or amount of wine from another year to be added to a vintage labeled wine. In Canada, the United States and France, a wine labeled vintage (as in “95” or “2000”) should be made from 95% of that year’s harvested grapes.

Vintage wines are usually famous for being made from an outstandingly good harvest of grapes. In many instances, the older the vintage year, the better the wine.