Vintage is something of a misunderstood term when it comes to wine. Unlike with cars, clothing or acting performances, where the word conveys a notion of classic quality, vintage wine is a very specific thing. That is, the produce of a single wine harvest in a specific year.

Take champagne. The vast majority of champagne is non-vintage, in other words a blend of wines made in different years. The reason this came to be is that Champagne is a cool wine region, so to insure against poor years when the grapes didn’t ripen properly, the Champenois started blending their old stocks in the cellar with the new ones.

Occasionally, however, an excellent growing season would come along and as a result the quality of the grapes was good enough to make a wine from just the fruit of that particular year. Thus a vintage champagne would be made.

Of course, many wines are, strictly speaking, vintage wines. A quick glance at any shop wine shelf will reveal vintage dates on most of the bottles. It is only with particular wines, such as port and champagne, that the term acquires that extra connotation of extra special quality.

So perhaps a better way of looking at the issue of vintages is not so much in terms of quality but instead character.

Wine is an agricultural crop, whose fortunes are governed by the climate just as any other. Just as good wine is all about balance, a good vintage is defined by a general pattern of benign weather. In broad terms, this will mean good levels of sunshine but not too much heat, sufficient rain for the plant to thrive but not too much or it will over-produce, some gentle wind to keep the grapes healthy but not too much to disrupt flowering – and so on.

Whether such patterns make for a successful vintage depends on the local climate. In Champagne, for example, a good year will be one that is warmer than average to achieve that extra ripeness in the grapes (hence flavour in the wine), with only light spring frosts and not too much rain, to limit yields.

In a warm climate like the USA’s Napa Valley, or Australia’s McLaren Vale, a good vintage will be one that is cooler than average, in order to allow the grapes a long season to ripen properly without becoming raisined or giving overly alcoholic wines.

Every wine region has its challenges, whether it be hail in Argentina or rain in Bordeaux. What defines a good vintage is overcoming these challenges and fashioning a wine of commendable character and substance in any given year.

As there are so many variables at play in any one vintage – from weather to vine age to winemaking styles – every one has a unique character. It is this character that will define whether the vintage is well received or not.

Some vintages enjoy legendary reputations as great years; others are better remembered as non-events.

A good example of the latter may well prove to be 2007. Endless summer rain in northern Europe, heat waves in the Mediterranean, terrible droughts and frost in Australia – none of these are conducive to making good wine, and inevitably patchy results are expected.

By contrast, a vintage like 2005 has been feted as one of the best for decades, certainly in high-profile regions like Bordeaux and Burgundy, where a warm but fresh growing season and only light rains gave excellent balance in the wines. Previous, much-lauded vintages in France include the likes of 2000, 1995, 1982, 1961 and 1945.

Vintages tend to have more relevance to the more marginal, often cooler climate winemaking regions because the difference between a good and poor year in these areas is most marked. Most of these tend to be found in Europe, though as cooler climate wine growing becomes more and more prevalent in the New World, the vintage year is of increasing importance to these countries too.