Does vintage matter? Bordeaux proves it does

In the next few weeks, wine collectors, importers, retailers and writers will flock to Bordeaux for “en primeurs,” the annual ritual of tasting the previous year’s wines. They will swirl, sniff, sip and spit raw 2017 wine that has barely finished its secondary fermentation and predict how it will taste in two or three years when released to the market — or in two or three decades. Then the reviews will come out, and the chateaus will announce their prices to be paid now for wines to be delivered later.

Two things are certain: Bordeaux, like most of Europe, was devastated by frost early last year, so there won’t be as much wine as usual. And prices will be out of reach for most of us. This is the hype of vintage, designed to get us to buy the newest and latest. You know, like when Apple moved the earbud port from the top to the bottom, and we all had to have the new iPhone.

While the wine elites indulge in the bacchanal of en primeurs, the rest of us should be scurrying around to our local wine stores and gobbling up as many of the “petit chateau” Bordeaux as we can find from the 2015 and 2016 vintages. Leave the pricey stuff to the collectors.

The 2015 and 2016 harvests combined ample crop with highquality ripeness, thanks primarily to good weather in August and September. So while the wine media fawn over the first growths and grand crus that cost into the hundreds, we can enjoy delicious wines for $15 or even lower. Stock up now and drink them over the next several years. That’s the beauty of vintage.

Wine is a product of its place of origin, and its vintage, as interpreted by the winemaker. A vintner grows the same grape varieties in the same place every year, but the wines are different because of the weather — the vintage. A spring frost may reduce

the final crop, a hailstorm in July could decimate a promising harvest, while sunshine in August and September can eliminate a season’s worth of trouble.

Some famous wines are not dependent on vintage. Champagne, sherry, tawny port — these classics blend wines from many years to achieve greatness and consistency. Some wines, such as Marietta Cellars Old Vine Red (one of my favorite Great Values of 2017), blend different vintages precisely to overcome the vagaries of individual years.

But how important is vintage when we buy wine? For most people, I suspect it is not a factor, or perhaps it’s viewed as a freshness date more than an indicator of quality. Modern winemaking has improved to the point that basic wine can be made consistently despite the weather. The chardonnay from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, my top pick from last year’s tasting of the best-selling inexpensive wines in the country, tastes pretty much the same year after year.

Bordeaux illustrates why it’s worth paying attention to the year on the label, even at the everyday level. Not that those of us who can’t afford the top wines should indulge in the hype, but when the hype gets loud enough, it means great values can be found at all price levels.

I first raved about the 2015 Bordeaux a year ago with La Petite Lune, a wine produced by Domaine de Chevalier, in the Pessac-Leognan area of Bordeaux. It made my top 12 Great Value list at the end of the year. More 2015s are now available, and some of the excellent 2016s are now hitting the market as well.

Most of these are from an area of Bordeaux called Entre-Deux-Mers. That translates as “Between Two Seas,” but it really refers to the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, which twist their way through the region before combining north of Bordeaux city to form the Gironde and flow to the Atlantic. Reds from here are usually labeled simply Bordeaux, and in average years they can be quite straightforward. In years such as 2015 and 2016, they can be exceptional.

Take Chateau Moulinat 2015, for example, a lovely, easy drinking wine that combines the textbook aromas and flavors of Bordeaux blackcurrant, plums and pencil shavings — with lively acidity that helps the wine improve over several hours or days. Or Chateau La Mothe du Barry 2016, dense and layered, with impressive complexity and a nervy electricity that, well, tastes more expensive than it is. Both wines are $14.

There are inexpensive 2015 and 2016 Bordeaux everywhere that are worth exploring. That’s the power of vintage.