Vintage ratings/vintage charts

hey guys.

do you rely on ‘vintage charts’ to know what years were good/bad in certain regions? are some better than others, or, alternately, are some known for being more reliable in certain regions of the world than another?

for example, I love Mosel Rieslings. depending on the vintage chart I consult, I’m informed:

2013: bad year (80, RP), pretty good year (89, WE; 89, WS)
2011, 2009: great year (95, RP; 93/92, WE; 95/97, WS)
2008: bad year (82, RP), good year (90, WE; 92, WS)
2001-2007: pretty good (91-95, RP; 91-96, WE; 91-98 (with 2 98s), WS)
2000: awful year (76, RP), okayish year (85, WE), bad year (82, WS)
1990: excellent year (96, RP; 95, WE; 97, WS)

sometimes they’re relatively consistent – if I looked at all three in a restaurant, I’d probably always shy away from 2000 and be interested in 2009 and 2011. but if I had Parker’s on my phone, I’d certainly avoid 2013 and 2008, whereas if I had WE or WS’s chart, I’d be interested in those two.

any pro-tips?

Hi Albert
[rofl.gif]

Only kidding [wink.gif]

Taking a drinking window steer can a useful starting point, particularly when you’ve no experience in that label ageing. Never treat it as something to follow blindly, but more a general guidance to ‘drink that wine before that other one’. I always enter a drinking window into CT, leaning on whatever range of sources I have, but if not making as educated a guess as possible. However I then only use it as a subtle prompt to drink up, or reminder to let it rest. I’d encourage you to take a leaf out of an Aussie critic’s book - he sets drinking windows, but if you observe closely they are basically just a choice of 7 ranges
1-2 years
2-3 years
3-5 years
5-8 years
8-12 years
12-20 years
20-30 years

i.e. there is no precision, just a choice on a scale of 1-7, from ‘drink youngest available’, to ‘cries out for cellaring’.

Worth being aware that prime drinking window is very much a personal preference and some will complete drinking a stash of a wine before I reckon it’s ready to drink the first bottle. I know many who despair at quoted short drinking windows for Barolo and Burgundy, arguing that the window quoted is the worst time to drink the wines, rather than the best, often encouraging you to start opening them when they start to close down, and drink them all up before they open out into maturity.

Your comment about CT/vivino/delectable is a good one. The critics focus on new releases to a) steal a march on the opposition if possible and b) get their names on shelf-talkers in shops - who aim to sell straight through asap. However these newer media have a greater focus on wine drunk throughout it’s life, from youthful promise to feeble senility. That makes them much more relevant than an early view from a critic, tasting the *bottle not long after release. I know Eric at CT makes a lot of effort to weed out ‘shill’ / fake reviews, and I hope the other two are as diligent (I don’t use them, so don’t know).

regards
Ian

  • Assuming that the winery was honest and sent a representative bottle, not a ‘critic’s cuvee’. Sadly the latter does occur, occasionally uncovered, but we suspect many get away with it.

i feel i don’t follow your albert comment…

Hi Justin
Apologies - for some reason I saw Justin in your signature, but had Albert in my head. No idea where it came from (apart from early senility!).
regards
Ian