Q & A: Where's the Vintage?

You may notice, (or, you may have never noticed but now you’re going to think about this next time you look at a wine list) that we don’t advertise vintages in our retail shop or on our menu. If you’ve ever relied on axioms such as “wines get better with age” or heard someone wax poetically- “oh, the ‘04, that was a good year” then you might be wondering what kind of self-respecting wine establishment wouldn’t be obsessed with age.

So- let’s clear up a few things. To begin, vintage refers to the year in which the grapes were picked. This is distinct from when the grapes were made into wine (vinified) or when they were bottled, or even when they were released to the public. Some wines may be harvested and not sold by the winery for up to five years, allowing for ageing and cellaring time, (i.e. Gran Reserva Rioja),whereas some are released as soon as possible after fermentation and bottling (i.e. Beaujolais Nouveau). A lot of factors contribute to how and why a winery may age its wine, but for the most part, wine makers are interested in keeping a certain flow of income into their projects. Some may produce reds that need months and months in oak barrels or concrete vats, and rely on sales of rose and whites to allow them to offer inventory while those wines age. Some may hold onto certain vintages to release later, preferring a passive cellaring time to allow a bottling to become more harmonious. For the most part, wineries release wines when they’re ready. Their wines may improve with age, but wineries are not going to do that cellaring work for their consumer. It just doesn’t make financial sense for anyone. 

Also; most wines DO NOT improve with age. All wines change with age, but only about 10% of wines sold commercially will get noticeably better as they sit. Winemakers in certain regions have relied on time to smooth out the unapproachable, rough edges of their wines. Young nebbiolo made in Barolo, Italy would be mouth-puckeringly tannic and lacking in fruit or character until it sat for 5-8 years and showed a gentle, earthy, chocolate-hued and berry-ripe midpalate. Burgundies were impossibly closed off, showing none of pinot noir’s characteristic violet and raspberry character, all until a spin in the barrel and time in the cellar let the shy pinot open up and become drinkable. Modern winemaking methods, including micro-oxegenation and cold fermentation allow certain UNTOUCHABLE bottles to be ready as soon as they’re released, only to improve with extended cellaring thereafter. However, we’re really talking about a very small portion of wines that need or improve with age- maybe 5-10% of wines really have the structure, acidity, or sugar/alcohol content to age well. And even then, it might be hard to say WHEN to open your 2012 Brunello di Montalcino. Pop it too soon, and your wine is still too tannic and acerbic---wait too long, and it’s flat and lifeless. A conundrum, indeed.

But! We don’t really play that game at Cork. We deal in a few of those rare bottlings which we could recommend someone try laying down for a year or more to investigate how age affects the wine, but for the most part, we expect you to take that bottle home and crack it right away. Moreover, we buy wines from our vintners when they decide to release them. We always have the most recent vintage available on our shelves and behind the bar. We don’t have a wine cellar full of past vintages here that we are saving up for a special client or certain event- we’re just giving you that good juice ASAP. We respect establishments that purchase old lots and cellar cases of wine as investments and portfolio-builders, but honey---that just ain’t us. If we got it, you can have it. 

Most-recent vintage means you get what you get- and that’s a good thing! Exploring the variations inherent in vintages is a fun way to get your head around the volatility and excitement of natural winemaking. What happened in the field, with the weather, with the harvest- it’s all right there in the bottle, and it can’t hide. We encourage you to not worry about the date on the bottle, because we promise we only sell wines ready to enjoy, with the intention of the winemaker in mind, who wants to showcase the bright, vibrant flavors of their young wine. And though wines change from vintage to vintage, we think every year is a good year if you’re drinking natty wine. 

So cellar your Collacapretta Il Burbero or Chateau Beru Bourgogne, and have a blast finding out what they’re like in a few years. Let us know if you prefer one vintage to another. We wanna know! But, we don’t think our guests and customers should obsess over one year vs. another. We just want them to drink good wine, all the time.