Barolo Vintage Chart: Understanding Nebbiolo Years

A Barolo vintage chart offers a guide to the characteristics of wines from a specific year. It helps you decide when to drink or hold your bottles. While the concept of vintage quality is widely discussed, its importance is also disputed. For wines produced in regions at the colder climatic limits of wine production, vintage can be very important. Some seasons will be much warmer and produce riper grapes and better wine, according to Gregory Jones in GuildSomm. Conversely, a poor growing season can lead to grapes failing to reach optimal ripeness. That leaves grape juice higher in acid and lower in sugar. The shift affects the quality of the resulting wine, as Jones also states. However, New York Times wine columnist Frank J. Prial declared the vintage chart to be dead. He wrote that "winemakers of the world have rendered the vintage chart obsolete." Understanding these nuances, alongside proper storage, is crucial for managing your fine wine collection. This article explores the general principles of vintage, its perceived importance, and the critical role of storage conditions in preserving your wine's quality. Those principles apply to all fine wines, including those from Barolo.

What is a vintage and why does it matter for your wine?

A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. This source explains that in winemaking, vintage is the process of picking grapes to create wine. For certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and declare vintage Port in their best years. Most countries allow a vintage wine to include a portion of wine not from the year denoted on the label. For example, in Australia, New Zealand, and the member states of the European Union, the requirement is 85% same-year content for vintage-dated wine. In the United States, this requirement is also 85%. A wine designated with an AVA must instead reach 95%. The opposite is a nonvintage wine, often seen as 'NV' on a wine list. It is usually a blend from the produce of two or more years. This is a common practice for winemakers seeking a consistent style of wine, year on year. That consistency can be useful when considering wines entering their drinking window.

The importance assigned to vintage is both varied and disputed. For wine produced in regions at the colder climatic limits of wine production, vintage can be very important. Some seasons will be much warmer and produce riper grapes and better wine. A poor growing season can lead to grapes failing to reach optimal ripeness. The result is grape juice that is higher in acid and lower in sugar. That shift affects the quality of the resulting wine, as Gregory Jones stated in GuildSomm in 2015. Wines of superior vintages from prestigious producers and regions will often command much higher prices than those from average vintages. That premium is widest when the wines are likely to improve further with some age in the bottle. You can track these trends on our live fine wine market index. Some wines are only labeled with a vintage in better-than-average years, to maintain their quality and reputation. The vast majority of wines are produced to be drunk young and fresh. In such cases, a vintage is usually considered less important. It can still protect consumers against buying a wine that would not be expected to improve with age. Such a bottle could be past its best. Beaujolais nouveau is the classic example. It is a wine style made to be consumed within months of its bottling.

Are vintage charts always reliable for your cellar?

Vintage charts are not always reliable for every wine or every taster. The importance of vintage may sometimes be exaggerated. Frank J. Prial, a New York Times wine columnist, declared the vintage chart to be dead. He wrote that "winemakers of the world have rendered the vintage chart obsolete." Bill Marsano also wrote that "winemakers now have the technology and skills to make good and even very good wines in undistinguished years." James Laube of Wine Spectator asserted that "even an average vintage can yield some grand wines."

Roman Weil is co-chairman of the Oenonomy Society of the US and a professor at the University of Chicago. He tested the controversial hypothesis that experienced wine drinkers "cannot distinguish in blind tastings the wine of years rated high from those of years rated low, or, if they can, they do not agree with the vintage chart's preferences,". Weil used wines ranging from four to 17 years beyond their vintage with 240 wine drinkers. He found that the tasters could not distinguish between wines of good and bad vintages, except for Bordeaux wines. Even when they could make a distinction, the match between the tasters' individual assessments and the charts' rankings were little better than tossing a coin. When the tests were replicated with wine experts, including French wine academics, the results were again the same as chance.

Weil does not consider a vintage chart to be useless, however. He suggests using one to help "find good buys in wine," as wine made in years considered to be worse than average for vintages may be priced far below its actual quality. This perspective can inform your strategy when you buy wine at auction.

How does storage impact a wine's vintage quality?

AWRI Technical Note TN09 covers "The effects of heat and light on wine during storage." It shows that proper storage significantly impacts a wine's ability to age and maintain its quality, regardless of vintage. Excessive storage temperatures will have a marked effect on the shelf life of bottled wine. Marais (1986) observed the development of faulty flavours and decreasing overall quality after 12 months’ storage of wine at 30°C. Temperatures in excess of 40°C will induce visual and sensory changes to a wine in only a matter of days, according to Ough (1986). Ough (1992) states that "In general, any storage place where the temperature exceeds 25°C for long periods and 40°C for short periods can affect wine quality." Amon and Simpson (1986) recommend that bottled wine be stored with the cork in contact with the wine in a cool (15-20°C), dry location.

Thermal expansion of wine may cause leakage and/or movement of cork stoppers. Such damage follows exposure to temperatures which are significantly greater than ambient temperature. Such physical damage does not necessarily imply that the quality of the wine has also been affected. It will obviously affect the appearance, and therefore the marketability, of the wine, AWRI Technical Note TN09 explains. Understanding wine ullage levels can help assess such damage.

Light also poses a threat to wine quality. Maujean and Seguin (1983) demonstrated that ‘lightstruck’ flavour (goûts de lumière) is due to the formation of volatile sulfur compounds. Riboflavin (vitamin B2) is present in low levels in musts and wines. It undergoes photo-activation and subsequent reduction when exposed to light at wavelengths of 370 nm and 440 nm. The sulfur-containing amino acids may in turn be oxidised. Subsequent reactions result in the formation of the sulfur compounds responsible for the sensory off character, as Maujean and Seguin describe. Dozon and Noble (1989) exposed still and sparkling white wines, bottled in green glass, to light emitted from fluorescent lamps. That exposure resulted in the production of the lightstruck flavour. The intensity of the flavour was statistically significant in the still and sparkling wines after exposure for 31.1 hours and 18 hours, respectively. In comparison, the same wines stored in clear glass developed a statistically significant level of the off flavour after exposure for only 3.3 hours and 3.4 hours, respectively. Sensory assessment of the affected wines used descriptive analysis. It indicated a decrease in ‘citrus’ aromas and an increase in ‘cooked cabbage’, ‘corn’, ‘wet wool/wet dog’ and ‘soy/marmite’ aromas.

Direct sunlight provides 4286 times the amount of UV-A radiation as fluorescent lamps, according to Gordon Watson, Gordon Watson and Associates, pers. comm. Sunlight is therefore likely to be more deleterious to wine quality than electric lighting systems. Retail window displays are one common case of such exposure. Another negative aspect is the potential for light exposure to exacerbate copper instability in susceptible white wines, leading to haze. The Institute recommends that white wines containing a concentration of copper greater than approximately 0.5 mg/L are likely to be susceptible to copper haze. If the level is greater than this arbitrary limit, protection from exposure to light will only delay the inevitable.

In view of these effects, AWRI Technical Note TN09 recommends that wine be stored under insulated and/or temperature-controlled storage conditions. Those conditions minimise fluctuations in both temperature and humidity. The careful selection of glass color can assist in preventing problems associated with light exposure. Rankine (1989) indicates that amber glass is most effective in excluding wavelengths below about 450 nm. For comprehensive advice on protecting your collection, consult our guide on how to store wine.

How can you use vintage information to manage your collection?

Available data limits the direct application of a specific Barolo vintage chart in this context. The general principles of vintage information can still inform your collection management. As Roman Weil suggested, vintage charts can help you "find good buys in wine," particularly for years considered worse than average, where prices may not reflect actual quality. This approach is valuable for fine wine investment.

You may be weighing wines from a specific year, such as those found on a Barolo vintage page. Understanding the general climatic conditions of that year can offer insights into the wine's potential character and longevity. For instance that in many wine regions, especially in the New World, growing seasons are much more uniform. In dry regions, the systematic and controlled use of irrigation also contributes to uniform vintages. However, such wines are regularly labeled by vintage because of consumer demand.

Producers like Giacomo Conterno are known for quality. Their superior vintages will often command higher prices, especially if the wines are likely to improve with age. Conversely, nonvintage wines are blends from multiple years. Their existence demonstrates a winemaker's ability to achieve a consistent style regardless of annual variations. This practice is common for winemakers seeking a consistent style of wine, year on year.

Ultimately, vintage information, when available and reliable, provides a framework for understanding a wine's potential. Combine this with knowledge of proper storage conditions and market dynamics. You can then decide when to open a bottle, when to hold it, or when to consider selling. To calculate the total cost of acquiring a wine, including duties and shipping, you can use our landed cost calculator.

To make informed decisions about your collection, explore our comprehensive vintage maturity charts. They give detailed insights into drink windows and aging potential across various regions and producers.