Wine by Vintage

Good, storable wine from Italy always bears a vintage. This gives information about the harvest year of the grapes used in the wine. The grape harvest usually takes place at the beginning of autumn and ranges from the end of August to mid-October. Due to the vinification that follows, the bottled wine is available on the market the following year at the earliest. The situation is different with wines that undergo further aging in wooden barrels, which is usually followed by further extensive aging in the bottle. These wines can be stored much longer and bear their vintage not as a shelf life, but as a kind of seal of quality. Older vintages of high-quality wines (especially red wines) are traded as rarities, which make connoisseurs' hearts beat faster. - Gerardo [TS07/22]