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Vineyard land · Pauillac≈$2,798,250 a hectare▼ down 17% on 20232024Opening price · Château Lafite Rothschild 2025≈$376 a bottle▲ up 17% on the year beforeSold at auction · Romanée-Conti Grand Cru, DRC 2019$22,917 a bottleSotheby's, Sep 2026Cost to make one bottle · Burgundy grand cru (Pinot Noir)$48–283US duty on wine from · Canada+50%since Aug 2026Everyday bottle in a US shop$13.77 a litre▼ down 1.3% in a yearSep 2026Vineyard land · Margaux≈$1,567,020 a hectare▼ down 7% on 20232024Opening price · Château Cheval Blanc 2025≈$376 a bottle▲ up 22% on the year beforeSold at auction · La Tâche Grand Cru, DRC 2018$5,417 a bottleSotheby's, Sep 2026Cost to make one bottle · Champagne prestige cuvée$26–89US duty on wine from · Australia+12.5%since Jul 2026Vineyard land · Côte-Rôtie≈$1,511,055 a hectare▲ up 8% on 20232024Opening price · Château Mouton Rothschild 2025≈$336 a bottle▲ up 19% on the year beforeSold at auction · Richebourg Grand Cru, DRC 2012$3,542 a bottleSotheby's, Sep 2026Cost to make one bottle · Bordeaux classified growth (2nd–5th)$17–61US duty on wine from · New Zealand+12.5%since Jul 2026Vineyard land · Côte de Nuits grand cru≈$7,275,450 a hectare2019Opening price · Château Palmer 2025≈$268 a bottle▼ down 19% on the year beforeVineyard land · Pomerol≈$2,238,600 a hectare2023
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What a vintage is, and when it matters

The vintage is simply the year the grapes were picked. Weather changes every year, so the same wine can taste different from one year to the next.

3 min read · For beginners

What a vintage is, and when it matters

The year on the label

A wine labelled 2020 was made from grapes picked in 2020. It may not have gone on sale until two or three years later, after ageing at the winery.

Why years differ

A warm, dry, sunny summer gives ripe, generous wines. A cool or rainy one gives lighter, sharper wines, and sometimes far fewer bottles. Frost in spring or hail in summer can wipe out much of a crop.

Ripe dark grapes on the vine over dry, cracked soil under a blue sky
A warm, dry year. Ripe grapes and generous wine.
Green grapes on a wet vine above a muddy row under low cloud
A cool, wet year. Lighter, sharper wine, and often less of it.

When it matters, and when it does not

For everyday bottles it hardly matters. Buy the youngest and enjoy it. Vintage matters most for fine wine from places with changeable weather, such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont and Champagne. A great year there can taste better, last longer and cost more.

Small fires burning between rows of bare vines at dawn
Small fires lit between the vines on a frosty spring night, to protect the new buds.

Non-vintage

Most Champagne and sparkling wine has no year on the label. It is a blend of several years, mixed so the house style tastes the same every time. The letters NV mean non-vintage.

A row of tasting glasses of white wine on a bench in front of stacked bottles in a chalk cellar
Blending wines from several years, so the bottle tastes the same every time.

Our year-by-year chart colours every vintage from difficult to exceptional, region by region.

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