2012 Wine and Port Vintage

Vintage Summary and Recommendations:

Welcome to Vintage Wine and Port's 2012 wine page. Read on for our summary of the 2012 vintage, our top recommendations and region reports. Scroll down to see all of our wines currently available. If you cannot find what you are looking for please call us on 01425 837177 or Contact Us. We would love to help you with your wine choice!

The 2012 vintage was hit-and-miss globally, with few regions delivering truly great wines but many good wines were still produced.

Our Wine Expert currently recommends the following wines for this year:

Palmer Port 2012 Colheita Port

Barros Port 2012 Quinta Da Galeira Vintage Port

Barolo 2012 Massolino Riserva Vigna Rionda

 
This Year in History: Fun Fact: Apple Inc became the largest company in the world, its value reached over $600 billion in 2012.
Eurovision Winner: Sweden with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen
Born in this Year: Isla Phillips, daughter of Peter and Autumn Phillips, sister of Savannah and second great grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II
Top Grossing Movie: The Avengers
 
Bordeaux: The 2012 wine vintage was a difficult one for Bordeaux, rewarding those winemakers who were attentive.Top estates made excellent wines, and overall better than 2011. The Medoc and Graves had a tough growing season, and a very late harvest. 2012 made a difficult growing season for the right bank, but Merlot generally fared better than the Cabernets; fine wines were produced in both Pomerol and St-Emilion.
 
Burgundy: An account of the 2012 growing season would suggest the vintage was catastrophic but, as so often happens in Burgundy, a fine September saved the day and ripened the grapes. Quantities produced are tiny, while quality is maddeningly inconsistent. There are tough, unappealing wines, and some magnificent ones. This makes it a difficult year to navigate as even within a single domaine there can be varying quality. The best wines, however, have good tannic structure and will age well.
 
Italian: Intense heat in Piedmont this year meant that the cooler vineyard sites may turn out to have produced the best wines, with some sunburn affecting the most exposed sites. The weather was also generally hot in Tuscany, with yields up to 30% below average thanks to uneven flowering caused by rain. A heatwave in August caused some vines to shut down, but nevertheless Chianti and Montalcino produced good quality.
 
Portugal: The 2012 port vintage was always going to be in the shadow of the outstanding 2011 vintage. An early drought led to a very small crop, but some excellent ports were produced. Quinta do Noval and Quinta do Vesuvio declared the vintage, whilst the bigger port shippers opted to make Single Quintas. Head Winemaker at Taylor Fladgate, David Guimaraens, noted: “A dry winter followed by a cool spring led to low yields but plenty of aromatic intensity. The cool ripening season was balanced by healthy growth, giving the resulting Ports crisp acidity and a remarkable purity of fruit.” These ports, whether Vintage or Single Quinta, would make a brilliant 13 year old wine gift for an anniversary this year.
 
Spain: This was a weird year of weather in Spain. It was the fifth consecutive small vintage, thanks in large part to very dry conditions; the resultant small berries harvested in Rioja made wines of great concentration and high tannin.

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