Great wine vintages follow a comet being visible in the growing season became the acccepted belief after 1811. The Great Comet of that year was said to have had an exceptionally large coma, perhaps reaching over 1 million miles across—fifty percent larger than the Sun. And that year in Bordeaux the wines reached great heights and was regarded at the time as the greatest vintage in living memory.
The Chateau d’Yquem 1811 received the perfect score of 100 points from Robert Parker* in 1996 although Parker by then knew the game. The Hardy Rodenstock vertical tasting of 175 vintages of Chateau d’Yquem was held in September 1998 and began with the 1784. Rodenstock was a noted forger of rare wines and a taster at this event left a memorable note of an 1890s vintage, ‘fabulous, so youthful, could have been made yesterday.’
We see what we want to in wine and alter our view to the occasion. This is one of the few times when the off the street amateur shows wisdom by rejecting the tired old wines collectors will be praising.
Discussing vintages like this is part of the lore of wine, though the differences are subdued in warm districts, becoming pronounced as cooler districts become marginal. Here are two Barossa Valley wines illustrating vintage differences, the classical vintage Goat Square Barossa Valley Shiraz 2021 and the drought year Stockwell Creek Barossa Valley Shiraz 2018.
The vintages come and go but how they leave their mark will depend on how the winemaker makes the wine. Over working the ferment while enhancing the colour can also extract too much tannin and build bitterness while new oak just adds to the problem.
What you want is the natural concentration that great vintages create in the grapes. You cannot develop such concentration in the winery. For example all the Pinot Noirs I have found transporting have a naturally occurring deep colour.
Should you organise a vertical tasting of Barossa Shiraz you will find the 1996 and 1998 show the naturally occurring, persistent, concentration of classical vintages while those older and many younger are browning and losing appeal.
Younger is better and safer and I like these recent bottlings Glug Nouveau Rouge McLaren Vale Gamay 2022 and Village Belle Eden Valley Tempranillo 2021.
* Robert Parker founded the U.S. wine publication the Wine Advocate with the first edition in August 1978. He became famous enough to have the title the Emperor of Wine.
