Vintage wines have a great reputation with wine drinkers and beginners looking for how to choose wine, but in reality, only a tiny fraction of wines created are ever intended to be kept to vintage. Especially if you’re a relative beginner in the art of choosing the wine you might as well not blow your budget on a wine that you don’t truly understand the complexities of. It’s a waste of money for you.
The year that you see on the bottle is the year that the grapes were picked. Often, wines like to be drunk young, and the younger a wine is the more powerful and punchy its flavors will be. For example, a light-bodied white should always be drunk young, as the longer that it is left the more that it will lose its signature palette of crisp, fruity flavors. The same goes for rosé wine- you should always choose a young rosé, as they are very rarely meant for aging.
If you are trying to choose a wine for you to age at home, for example for a wedding anniversary or the birth of a new child then it’s best to go to a specialized wine shop to ask what their recommendation is. Certain brands are typically good for aging, such as Moscato or cabernet sauvignon, but different years can taste very different from each other because of rainfall, sunshine, or a variety of factors.
