much higher prices than those from average vintages. This is especially the case if wines are likely to improve further with some age in the bottle. Some wines are only labeled with a vintage in better-than-average years, to maintain their quality and reputation, while the vast majority of wines are produced to be drunk young and fresh. In such cases, a vintage is usually considered less important. However, it can serve to protect consumers against buying a wine that would not be expected to improve with age and could be past its best, such as with Beaujolais nouveau, a wine style made to be consumed within months of its bottling. The importance of vintage may sometimes be exaggerated. For example, New York Times wine columnist Frank J. Prial declared the vintage chart to be dead, writing that "winemakers of the world have rendered the vintage chart obsolete"; Bill Marsano wrote that "winemakers now have the technology and skills to make good and even very good wines in undistinguished years". James Laube of Wine Spectator has asserted that "even an average vintage can yield some grand wines". Weil blind tastings Roman Weil, co-chairman of the Oenonomy Society of the US and professor at the University of Chicago, tested the controversial hypothesis that experienced wine drinkers "cannot distinguish in blind tastings the wine of years rated high from those of years rated low, or, if they can, they do not agree with the vintage chart's preferences". Weil used wines ranging from four to 17 years beyond their vintage with 240 wine drinkers and found that the tasters could not distinguish between wines of good and bad vintages except for Bordeaux wines. Even when they could make a distinction, the match between the tasters' individual assessments and the charts' rankings were little better than tossing a coin. When the tests were replicated with wine experts, including French wine academics, the results were again the same as chance. Weil does not consider a vintage chart to be useless. He suggests using one to help "find good buys in wine", as wine made in years considered to be worse than average for vintages may be priced far below its actual quality. Miscellaneous In Spain, wine regulators publish official classifications of each vintage. A common Bordelais saying is "The best vintage is the vintage we have to sell" (Greene). See also Comet vintages References Further reading