Vintage is the term use in the yearly gathering of the grapes and making the wine. Vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all grown in a single specified year. Wines of superior vintages from prestigious producers and regions will often command higher prices that those from average vintages. This practice gave rise to the expressions "vintage years" and "vintage wine" referring to high quality. The year of the vintage often appears on wine bottle labels. Some wineries date the wine every year; other date only the wine of better years. Vintage charts, available from wine dealers and often found in books about wine, rate each year's grape harvest are excellent, average, or poor.

Nonvintage wine is the opposite of vintage wine; it is usually a blend from the produce of two or more years. This is being practice by winemakers who are seeking a consistent taste and style of wine year on year.

Most countries allow a vintage wine to include a portion of wine that is not from the year denoted on the label. Example of this is Chile and South Africa, their requirement is 75% same-year content for vintage dated wine; Australia, New Zealand, USA and member states of the European Union's requirement are 85%.

Important things to know about the age of wines:

• An old wine is not necessarily good. Some wines may already be drinkable a month after bottling and is good only for the next 2 years.
• All roses and many white wines are best when young (should be consumed within months of its bottling).
• All wines have a natural life span; they are youth, prime and old age. About 75% of all wine produced reaches its prime (when it is smooth and mellow) by the time it is a year old and will deteriorate after 3 years.
• In general red table wines with less than 14% alcohol, especially good red Burgundy and Bordeaux, will improve in the bottle with age.
• Some wines are not even released for sale until they have had a few years in bottle and are not yet drinkable for a few years after that.