10/02/2024
IS THE DATE ON THE WINE LABEL THE SAME AS THE YEAR THE WINE WAS BOTTLED?
The short answer is no. Most wine labels do not indicate when the wine was bottled. It could be the same as the bottling year, but not necessarily.
The main exceptions would be of some Champagnes and other sparkling wines, which might indicate the date of disgorgement on the label or on the bottle itself. Non-vintage (NV) styles of Port and Sherry may also indicate the bottling year.
In most cases, the date you see on a bottle will be the vintage date, or the year the grapes were picked. This can be important information for a wine lover, since some vintages are more notable or ageworthy than others.
In fact, vintage year is a much more important indicator of a wine’s character and quality than the year the wine was bottled. Vintage quality depends on what Mother Nature provided during the growing season and what the conditions at harvest were like.
That said, If you see a bottle that doesn’t have a vintage date, don’t be worried! There are many terrific NV wines made from grapes grown during multiple years that are blended together to create a consistent house style (NV champagnes)
If you have a bottle of vintage-dated wine and you’re wondering when the wine was actually put in the bottle, there are a few ways to figure that out. The producer will probably disclose how long they aged the wine, so you can start at the harvest date and add however many months or years the wine spent aging. Certain styles (such as Barolo and Rioja) have standard aging requirements, so if you know those, you can at least approximate when the wine probably made its way into the bottle.
— Wine Spectator
