Wine vintage rating 2011

What was the vintage 2011 like?

2011 is one of the wine vintages that are very easy to drink early on. As always, the character of 2011 is due to the weather conditions. The spring was summery, the summer combined isolated hail and dryness and heat with subsequent heavy rain.

Industrial wines, simple wines had to struggle everywhere with a lack of freshness. Classic wineries from the classic top locations mostly produced real classics. Moderate alcohol levels (finally again), smooth wines. Why are the premium wines doing so much better than the supermarket quality wines in 2011? The vintage required strict selection during the harvest to weed out bad vines. Only the very good wine producers can afford this effort. A very classic vintage in Burgundy with soft tannins.

After a cool start to the summer, the weather in Piedmont improved and remained stable until the late harvest. Tuscany has had a long, warm summer with cool nights for excellent, elegant wines.

Weather in the year 2011

At the beginning of the year there was a two-week period of very mild weather. After that, there were a few freezing rains, which fortunately occurred before flowering. Spring started cool, but during April temperatures rose to summer-like levels. At the same time, the pronounced drought made itself felt in nature. April 2011 was the hottest April since weather records began. In May the weather conditions remained unchanged: dry and very hot.

The long-awaited precipitation came in June in the form of storms and heavy rain. A heat wave followed at the end of June. The beginning of July and August brought bad weather and more rain. Hot summer days then returned in the south.

The heat records determined the weather conditions in the south and south-west until the beginning of October, only interrupted by isolated storms.

The current stock of wines from the 2011 vintage

All wines from the 2011 vintage are in our own wine cellar and can be shipped immediately or picked up at the wine shop. To the wines of 2011

Good filling levels, good wine quality

The fill level of an old vintage wine reveals important information on the drinkability of the wine.
Of course, the good condition of a wine from an old vintage depends on excellent storage. Above all, the wine must not have frequently changed cellars. Ideally, the wine will have rested in one and the same wine cellar.

But also the cork that sits in each individual bottle is very important. A perfect cork has few pores and keeps the wine stable. If an inferior cork happens to have been used in a bottle, the porous surface will begin to soak up wine and allow micro-quantities of the liquid to evaporate over the decades. Poor fill levels are the result.

A poor fill level therefore also indicates a high risk that the wine bottle could soon begin to leak.

The fill levels explained:
In the bottle neck (high fill to base neck) about 2 cm is perfect for wines.
Top and upper shoulder, ([very] top shoulder), approx. 3 cm is very good for very old wines.
Medium shoulder (mid shoulder), about 4 cm is only acceptable for rare top wines and in individual cases.
Everything below the red line should not be offered any more.

Wine rating

Do you have a 2011 vintage in your wine cellar and would you like to know how much it is worth?

Here are a few tips: in order to still have any value, the bottle must be leakproof. The wine must not be cloudy. It should be of good quality (not supermarket wine).

Search for the wine online without specifying the vintage. If it is a well-known winery, you will find the wine immediately and also the price you have to pay for the current vintage. If the current wine costs from EUR 20.00 upwards, that's a good sign.

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