Each year has a specific climatic regime, and the climate factor itself has an important influence on the characteristics of each 'terroir' or wine producing locality.

Through our research on archive material for the Bordeaux region, and concerning Bordeaux reds [Luis Dubroca 'Grands vins de Bordeaux depuis 1830' ('Great Bordeaux Wines since 1830')] we have found that the history of grape harvests through 1795-1995 shows that 3 main criteria have been used to set the final quality of the wine produced for each year class:

		Date for start of grape harvest: a sensitive and difficult choice; the grapes must be harvested in good condition, but also must be of correct ripeness for the desired wine
		Weight of grapes harvested and volume of juice
		Quality

These selection criteria determine the choices open to the wine maker, and the processes and stages of production that will be selected all along the 'supply chain', including length and temperature used for fermentation, choice of wine blending (for 'assembling' the final wine), and the time the wine is 'raised' (16 - 18 months for most wines).

From the interplay of these factors and choices it is possible to form good opinions on how a particular year output or millesime will be, and also on its maturation potential, that is the number of years it can be kept.

Taking you date of birth, do you think it was a great, or only good millesime?