L'année
The Vintage Chart
No two French harvests are alike. Frost in April, hail in June, a golden September — the year's weather is written into every bottle. This matrix scores ten recent vintages across six major regions: what to cellar, what to drink tonight, and why.
| Vintage | Bordeaux | burgundy | Champagne | rhone | loire | Alsace | The year in brief |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | A cool, wet, disease-pressured year in the north; small crops everywhere. Attentive growers still made precise, fresh wines.Drink now: Too young for serious reds; crisp whites showing well. |
| 2023 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | A generous, warm harvest after a rainy June. Bordeaux reds are structured and classic; Burgundy plentiful and balanced.Drink now: Village-level Burgundy and Loire whites already charming. |
| 2022 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | Hot and dry, yet the vines coped superbly — a benchmark modern vintage almost everywhere, ripe but fresh.Drink now: Beaujolais, Loire Cabernet Franc; cellar everything grand. |
| 2021 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | The frost vintage — devastating April losses, tiny yields. What survived is classic, cool-fruited and lower in alcohol.Drink now: Drink up: a year of charm over power. |
| 2020 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | An early, even, lockdown harvest. Supple reds and beautifully balanced whites; quietly excellent across the board.Drink now: Cru Beaujolais, Crozes-Hermitage, Médoc. |
| 2019 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | The great modern all-rounder — warmth without excess, concentration with acidity. A desert-island vintage.Drink now: Drinking well at village level; the great names need a decade. |
| 2018 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | A wet spring then a blazing summer. Rich, powerful wines; Champagne's finest harvest of the decade.Drink now: Southern Rhône and Loire reds are delicious now. |
| 2017 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Another frost year in the Loire and Champagne. Bordeaux's right bank shone; Burgundy made fragrant, early-drinking wines.Drink now: Most of the vintage is at its peak — drink. |
| 2016 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | A wet spring rescued by a golden autumn. Bordeaux's modern reference point, all freshness and structure.Drink now: Burgundy and Northern Rhône opening up beautifully. |
| 2015 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | Warm, dry and gloriously even — the vintage that announced the modern golden run. Superb nearly everywhere.Drink now: Rhône and Alsace at their peak; Bordeaux and Burgundy just entering their window. |
01
Vintage is weather
France's northerly vineyards sit at the climatic edge, so the year matters more here than almost anywhere. A single April frost can halve Burgundy's crop; a wet September can thin a Bordeaux vintage to elegance or dilution.
02
Great years age
Fours and fives reward patience — the structured 2019s and 2022s will be better in 2035. Threes are made for the table: drink them young while the fruit is vivid.
03
Producer beats year
A meticulous grower in a difficult year outperforms a careless one in a great year. Use this chart to set expectations, then choose the name on the label with care.