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The rating of wines by vintages began in the 19th century, prompted by the need for British wine merchants to bring some sort of order to their purchases of Bourdeaux and Burgandy Wines. An order in terms of pricing, that is. They would buy wine at a certain price, but then, depending on the time it spent aging in cask or bottle and the pleasure that the resulting wine could give to the end customer, they would set the definitive price. And every so often a year would be declared as "exceptional".

In the old days, wine making was completely at the mercy of the climate and the soil. The quality of different grapes varied according to whether it rained or not, or whether it was hot or cold, to such an extent that between one area and another there were huge differences in the quality of the grapes from which that amazing gift of the gods, wine, is made.

There are always microclimatic differences which make some valleys exceptions to the regional classifications of wine, And if you want to make exceptional wines you need to break through the bounds of the ordinary and find quality grapes, wherever they may be. Because only from exceptional grapes will you make exceptional wines. Itï¿½s the same thing with cooking: to make a great dish we need even greater ingredients. Because if you start with bad ingredients youï¿½ll end up making a worse dish.

With the advent of watering systems with anti-freeze protection, the need for rain is not so critical. But the heat and cold are still not under Manï¿½s control. A hard frost at the wrong moment can spoil grapes or blossom, while too much heat will merely bring the harvest forward.
Itï¿½s no longer necessary to learn a regionï¿½s rainfall stats off by heart. These days the harvest is not fixed at a certain time of the year but is decided on according to the oenologistï¿½s criteria, and depending on the age of the vines, whether the grapes are to be used to make whites, rosï¿½s or reds, and if these wines are going to be bottled young or aged in wood.

Another important aspect in this matter of vintages is how the wine is made. Nowadays technological advances allow fermentation temperatures and other parameters to be controlled, which means that once a quality grape has entered the winery the rest depends on the winemakerï¿½s skill and the kind of wine he wants to produce.
If you have a wine vintage chart to hand, look at the years in the early 20th century and youï¿½ll see that the classifications fluctuate enormously. Two excellent years are followed by very poor ones, while average years predominate in many regions.
Nowadays good and very good years are the norm, which is only to be expected given the greater control over fermentation and the general improvement in technology.

But what makes a year warrant the term "exceptional"? Is it because all or most wines bottled in that region were exceptional? Are we referring to wines with body, bouquet and a silky smoothness; do we mean a gran reserva, or at least a reserva, which is to say an old, oak aged wine?
Iï¿½m sorry but I donï¿½t think itï¿½s right that, in order to satisfy the marketing interests of a group of wineries - which dominate the war between the Designations of Origin (which regulate Spanish wines) - we should become immersed in a series of silly generalisations. Which brings me to the famous year of 1982.
1982 was an ï¿½exceptionalï¿½ year in La Rioja, but they sold everything they could lay their hands on. I even saw wine from many regions claiming to be 82s in those litre bottles with plastic caps. And Iï¿½m sure the only reason we didnï¿½t see 1982 wine in TetraBriks is because the idea hadnï¿½t occurred to them...