Vintage Wine Prices: The Precious Years

Added: 02/10/2006

Wine is one of the very few products which gains its quality and respect with years. The dusty bottle which dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century can bring about unreserved admiration. And it is not accidental! Wine has been drunk for thousands of years, even the antique civilizations enjoyed this incomparable beverage. Premium quality wine is produced in very few places all around the world and real experts know each of the trends.

Every year wineries produce impressive wine collections, each bottle of which contains all the sunshine and rain of the season. Every year wine is special, unique and this very taste will probably never be repeated again. Vintage wine labels, like Port, declare their wines 'vintage' because of the peculiar taste and quality. The word 'vintage' is also applied to speak about particularly old wines, however, it is a new, acquired meaning of the word 'vintage', because originally it denotes wine which is made from grapes grown in a single (usually specified) year.

Quality wines are classified according to the country, that produces the wine, vintage wine raitings, and the percentage of genuine vintage wine in each bottle. In the European Union the portion of wine that is not from the labeled vintage should not be more than fifteen percent. In Chile and South Africa the requirement is even lower: only seventy five percent same-year content. The United States require ninety five percent, but it is hard to believe that this regulation is strictly followed.

Vintage wine prices depend on several principal aspects, the main of which is the harvest year. For example, you can buy a 750ml bottle of vintage quality wine which dates back to 1960 for $375.00 (Antonio Jose Da Silva Quinta do Noval Vintage Port). Vintage Port is the wine which is produced by a handful of winemakers, the most famous of which are Cockburn, Croft, Dow's, Fonseca, Noval, Sandeman, Quinta, Taylor Fladgate and Warre. This kind of vintage wine is the one that tends to improve with age.

You don't have to look for an example: Vintage Port Centurions make a great collection of exclusively smooth and harmonious and excessively expensive wines. However, there is no better gift for a hundredth year anniversary than a bottle of creamy, spicy wine which is also a hundred years old. It can well go as a corporate gift for an anniversary of a company. 750ml bottle of Blandy's Boal Madeira Vintage Port, harvested in1907, will cost you $1,250.00.

If it seems too much for a single bottle, it is possible to find more reasonable vintage wine prices. If you think that fourteen years is enough for the wine to reach its finest taste, richly flavoured, excellently balanced and pure, than 1992 Beringer Bancroft Ranch Vintage Merlot for only $85 will be the best solution! It is a good gift and the great addition to every dinner.

Here are more vintage wine prices for wines of different years:
- 1995 Cockburn's Quinta Dos Canais Vintage Porto Portugal costs $85.00.
- 1983 Borges vintage Port costs about $75
- 1977 Clos du Val Vintage Merlot will be not less than $135. This wine is usually produced in Napa Valley (California, USA), the region which has made its name for the premium quality of its wines.
- 1970 Croft Vintage Port cost about $175.00.
- 1967 example of German wine, Schloss Eltz Rauenthaler Weishell Spatlese Vintage Riesling (1967) is sold for $150.00
- 1963 Cockburn Vintage Port, Portugal is the four-star wine which is usually sold for $280.
Vintage wine prices are different, as well as the tastes of the consumers, however they rarely betray their favourite wine label, the taste of which can satisfy the most sensuous nose and tongue of the most demanding gourmet.

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