Napa Valley vintage chart
Year by year · indicative benchmarks: the producer and storage conditions come first.
A vintage does not only say whether the wine was good: it says how long it keeps. A great year outlives a modest one, and that is what this page puts next to every year. The windows below are for a Napa Cabernet; a humbler wine ages faster, a very great one far slower.
| Vintage | Rating | Drink |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Great | 2027–2040 |
| 2022 | Great | 2026–2039 |
| 2021 | Outstanding | 2025–2039 |
| 2020 | Drink up | 2023–2031 |
| 2019 | Great | 2023–2036 |
| 2018 | Outstanding | 2022–2036 |
| 2017 | Good | 2021–2032 |
| 2016 | Great | 2020–2033 |
| 2015 | Great | 2019–2032 |
| 2014 | Great | 2018–2031 |
| 2013 | Outstanding | 2017–2031 |
| 2012 | Outstanding | 2016–2030 |
| 2011 | Average | 2015–2024 |
| 2010 | Great | 2014–2027 |
| 2009 | Good | 2013–2024 |
| 2008 | Average | 2012–2021 |
| 2007 | Outstanding | 2011–2025 |
| 2005 | Good | 2009–2020 |
| 2002 | Great | 2006–2019 |
| 2001 | Great | 2005–2018 |
| 1997 | Great | 2001–2014 |
| 1994 | Great | 1998–2011 |
| 1991 | Great | 1995–2008 |
A year missing from this table is not a bad year: it is a year we would rather not rule on. Better silence than a rating pulled out of thin air.
See also ageing by appellation.
Curious where these numbers come from? The method is published in full: five levels from the estate down to the grape, corrected by the vintage and the bottle format.
What about your bottles?
Caviste computes this window for every bottle in your cellar: photograph the label, the sheet fills itself in (estate, vintage, appellation) and the app tells you when a bottle reaches its peak. Discover Caviste.
