Vintage is the "year" or season of winegrowing. Vintage wine is defined as wine which is produced at least 95% from grapes harvested in a single, stated year. Note that this is not necessarily the year in which the grapes were grown or the wine was bottled, but the year in which the grapes were HARVESTED. For example, as a sales gimmick, to help promote the highly unusual climate of upper Monterey County, Ca, wine grapes were harvested extremely late in the 1978 season -- on January 2nd, 1979 to be exact. The wine was made in a Nouveau Beaujolais style and sold as 1979 vintage as early as March, 1979! (Wine/Classification & Attributes)