at what age does a wine become a "vintage"?

[Danski]

saw a 2004 bottle in the shop the other day and it was classed as "2004 Vintage"!!!

[Eat Fish]

The "vintage" is the year the wine was produced.

[Edward Mainwaring-Burton]

The word 'Vintage' marked on a bottle of wine denotes (under UK regulations) that at least 85% of the juice fermented to produce that bottle was from grapes harvested in that particular year. The percentage that is concerned can vary slightly from country to country according to national regulations.

Hope this helps.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vintage for further information.

[Pontac]

Vintage doesn't mean old or special where wine is concerned.
Most wines are vintage wines -- all 'vintage' means is that their label displays the year the grapes were harvested.

This can be important, as unlike cans of Heinz tomato soup, or McDonalds hambugers which are always the same, wine differs according the year its grapes were grown. It is an agricutural product that is greatly affected by the amount of sun and rain and other climatic conditions.

The most common 'non-vintage' wine is Champagne, where wines from different years are blended in order to achieve a standard taste over the years, thus a Moet et Chandon Champagne shouldn't vary in taste when you buy another bottle next year.

The vintage of a wine affects its taste, demand for it and thus its price. And wines change with age in the bottle, some age better than others -- so the vintage indicates also how old the wine is.

There was a question here from someone wanting to buy a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. They asked whether they should buy the 2006 vintage or the 2005 and the replies showed there are firm opinions about the merits of each.

[mmcall]

"Vintage" simply means the wine is from a single year named on the label, rather than a blend from several years. Vintage wines aren't necessarily good; there are fine years, average years, and poor years for most wines