The word "millesimes" can be strictly defined in the plan of the French international conference: "The year is the Gregorian calendar number attached to the wine bottle to ensure the production year". However, a definition is not always strict and clear enough. Since 1582, some personalized things have been attached to advertisements.
Millesimes, the proper term of wine, refers to the date of birth of wine. There are at least two reasons for identifying the wine on the label. One is to prove the year of wine, so that wine lovers can choose young wine or old wine according to their own tastes and conditions; The second is to explain the year of grape harvest. Generally speaking, the annual harvest quality of grapes in vineyards is very different, and the quality level of wine produced is also very different. Marking the year on the bottle can give consumers information about the quality of the wine before removing the cork. Every year's wine has its typicality, its evolution characteristics, its fame and its price tag, so all high-end wine products will be marked with the year. Under the condition that the brewing technology is unchanged, the natural conditions in the producing areas have a decisive influence on the vintage wine, and the quality of the same vintage wine in different producing areas or different years in the same vineyard is different. On the shelves of shops, there are some excellent wines with ordinary prices and no dates, but they are usually young wines or wines brewed by reasonable varieties.
Millesimes is different every year and is a masterpiece of climate change. No two grape harvest seasons are the same. It can be asserted that from the brewer's point of view, people will never brew the same wine in different years. The influence of climate on grapes seems to be more decisive than other fruits, because it takes 45 days for grapes to ripen from foot to top, and the ear is easily damaged when ripening. The weather at harvest has a great positive and negative impact on the quality of grapes. Good years and bad years are unpredictable and there is no fixed cycle.
According to the records of Bordeaux, there are 20 good years in the 50 years from 1930 to 1980, and there is no certain rule to follow. There are only two in 30-39 years, 34 and 37 years; There are three in 40-49 years, 45, 47 and 49 years; There are five in 50-59 years, 50, 52, 53, 55 and 59 years; There are four people aged 60-69, 6 1, 62, 64 and 66 years old; There were six in 70-79 years, 70, 7 1, 75, 76, 78 and 79 years; It can be seen that the number of good years in each decade is different, and the odd and even numbers are roughly the same, but there is no law.
So many good years, should we compare them in different grades? It stands to reason that as a professional sommelier, we should not ignore the emergence of year differences, nor should we avoid the need for year classification. We should sort the years as we put forward the naming rules of origin. But in fact, the score of a year is not an absolute value, but only a comparison of wines from different years harvested in the same plot. It is very difficult to establish the grade of vintage fairly, because vintage is abstract and subjective, which involves the comparison of the average quality of wine in different years. For example, the year before last was 2004. How do other years compare with the current wine varieties? It is necessary to synthesize the impressions of 2002, 2000, 1998 and other years; These wines have been kept in bottles for several years. How did they evolve? This requires a good retrospective reasoning and judgment on the previous impressions of these wines, and then show the evaluations of those previous years. People understand that such a classification is not only troublesome but also will lead to endless discussions. Therefore, sommeliers have a great understanding of this. Another concept is that, like homogenization, factors such as the difficulty of brewing, the regularity of results, and the commercial atmosphere should also be included in the imprint of that year, which will lead to some large and good manors in an absolute dominant position and cannot be compared with more factors. As for the comparison of years in different regions, it is even more impossible.
One of the simplest and most practical methods is to divide the years into good and bad grades. In fact, there is no obvious boundary between good years and bad years. There are no worse years, only hard years. This is a law. Starting from this idea, even in the year when the quality of grape raw materials is poor, modern science and technology can make up for its deficiency. If the quality is not high, at least you can always guarantee that there will be no mistakes. In a fairly good year, better wine can always be produced. Some wine lovers, limited by their own experience, always think that high-grade wine comes from the New Year. In fact, they don't understand that the principle followed by savvy buyers is "small manor, big year; Big manor, small year. "
Special climate and modern technology are very important, and wine workers can never forget the unity of nature and nurture.
The trademark of wine indicates the year of grape harvest, which is called "vintage wine". Its first significance is to provide consumers with a special information so that high-level consumers can choose wine according to the year; Second, it is essential for wine collectors to indicate the year of harvest and brewing, because if a bottle is sold, there will be one less bottle; Third, drinking wine marked with the year may arouse people's association, recall the joy and struggle of that year, and increase the taste of drinking, which is also a kind of enjoyment of wine culture.
In France and other European countries, the government registers the total output of various wines, including vintage wines, and controls them at the source. Therefore, the sales volume of vintage wine is decreasing year by year, and it will never be endless!