Grapes varietals are affected by weather in various ways. The Riesling grape, for example, thrives under cooler growing conditions, and that's precisely why Germany and Oregon have much of the market cornered on stellar Rieslings. However, if you have a particularly warm, dry growing season, the Riesling vintage could suffer that year and the same producer that offered the Riesling you fell in love with the year before, might not meet prior expectations this vintage and you could be left waiting to see what the next year's weather will bring to a region and ultimately a vintage.

After a rough weather season you might think all is lost and you'll just need to stretch your favorite bottles until the next vintage, but that's where skilled winemakers can really work their magic. If poor weather patterns prevail for a given region, an experienced winemaker can salvage the vintage by employing various interventions and techniques during the vinification process. Whether, the vintner brings the wine around via blending, utilizing different fermentation processes or considers

additives - it takes a knowledgeable winemaker to "save" a potentially sour vintage and keep reasonable consistency in a specific wine between vintages.

What about "Non-vintage" Wines?

Most sparkling wines and fortified wines are classified as "non-vintage" wines, because they are typically a blend of various vintages. This blending practice is utilized to try to get a very consistent style of wine from year to year. In exceptional years, a vintage Champagne or vintage Port will debut due to ideal growing conditions and you can expect that these particular vintage wines will garner a pretty penny.

When you think of vintage,consider a region's weather pattern for the specific year and you'll be on the right track in determining what odds were for or against the wine right from the start. You can access a region's vintage report for individual years either online or through resources like Wine Spectator.

What has worked for me really well is the Wine Spectator's Mobile application. I carry it on my Blackberry and it takes a few keystrokes to find out about a particular year for a particular region. For example, I just searched the vintage chart for the region of Montalcino in Italy and it tells me that the years 2005, 06 and o7 are still not rated but gives you an indication (comments) on what you should expect. For 2004, however, it tell me that the rating is of 97! and goes on to say "wonderfully perfumed, majestically refined Brunellos with an excellent balance of fruit and refined tannins. Reducing yields was key to quality".  So now I can go search for 2004 vintage Brunellos with more confidence of finding good product.