vintage
Americannoun
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the wine from a particular harvest or crop.
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the annual produce of the grape harvest, especially with reference to the wine obtained.
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an exceptionally fine wine from the crop of a good year.
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the time of gathering grapes, or of winemaking.
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the act or process of producing wine; winemaking.
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the class of a dated object with reference to era of production or use.
a hat of last year's vintage.
adjective
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of or relating to wines or winemaking.
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being of a specified vintage.
Vintage wines are usually more expensive than nonvintage wines.
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representing the high quality of a past time.
vintage cars;
vintage movies.
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old-fashioned or obsolete.
vintage jokes.
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being the best of its kind.
They praised the play as vintage O'Neill.
verb (used with object)
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to gather or harvest (grapes) for wine-making.
The muscats were vintaged too early.
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to make (wine) from grapes.
a region that vintages a truly great champagne.
verb (used without object)
noun
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the wine obtained from a harvest of grapes, esp in an outstandingly good year, referred to by the year involved, the district, or the vineyard
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the harvest from which such a wine is obtained
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the harvesting of wine grapes
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the season of harvesting these grapes or for making wine
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a time of origin
a car of Edwardian vintage
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informal a group of people or objects of the same period
a fashion of last season's vintage
adjective
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(of wine) of an outstandingly good year
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representative of the best and most typical
vintage Shakespeare
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of lasting interest and importance; venerable; classic
vintage films
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old-fashioned; dated
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of vintage
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English (noun), from Anglo-French, from vint(er) vintner + -age -age; replacing Middle English vendage, vindage, from Anglo-French; Old French vendange, from Latin vīndēmia “grape-gathering,” equivalent to vīn(um) “grape, wine” ( see wine) + dēm(ere) “to take from” (from dē- de- + (e)mere “to buy, obtain, take”) + -ia -y 3
Explanation
A vintage is the specific year that a wine was made. Different vintages are better than others. This word is mainly associated with wine. Some wine drinkers can actually identify a wine’s vintage based on smell or taste. Also, this word can refer to things that are old, yet also kind of cool. An antique car is known as a vintage automobile. There are also vintage bikes and watches. Watch out for the word vintage though: sometimes it just means old or used, like a vintage clothing store.
Vocabulary lists containing vintage
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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Tangerine
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In 2020, as the film industry slowed down because of COVID-19, Weger took a chance and opened the Curatorial Dept., a vintage and designer resale shop in Atwater Village.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Nearby, a handmade chandelier by artist Helen Stickler, decorated with vintage Swarovski crystals and beads, adds to what Weger describes as her “Candyland vibe.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
If he had amassed the same number of records, skateboard decks or vintage gaming consoles — all fire hazards — would he have gotten the same eviction warning?
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
Now heatwaves are threatening the grape crop and raising costs for the 2026 vintage, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
“Well, honey. You have a vintage name. It’s classic. Timeless.”
From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day
To keep in mind: The winery regularly re-releases earlier vintages of their Estate Cabernet; the 2016 Stonestreet Estate Cabernet is available now on the winery website.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
Frenchmen such as Jean Louis Vignes came here bearing know-how and wine grape stock, and put the old mission varieties in the shade with ever-better vintages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025
Despite paying “extraordinary costs” to try to cleanse the soot and smoke from their 2020 vintages, such efforts largely failed, according to the complaint.
From Seattle Times ● May 28, 2024
We don't know yet whether the changes in microbial diversity affect the flavor profiles of these two vintages.
From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2024
The wine was poor stuff compared to the vintages from the Arbor the house normally served.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
As all the wines which he sends into the market are vintaged by himself, he can ensure their being of uniform high quality.
From Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines by Vizetelly, Henry
The latter is vintaged at Ingelheim, the grapes being pressed under the firm’s own superintendence, and only the must resulting from the first squeeze of the press being used.
From Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines by Vizetelly, Henry
White wine from the clevener grape, understood to be identical with the pineau noir of Burgundy and the Champagne, and vintaged early in October, forms the basis of the sparkling wines manufactured by Kleinoscheg Brothers.
From Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines by Vizetelly, Henry
How delicious too the sweetbreads, the salad, the fromage; and crowning all, the exquisite service of sparkling wine, vintaged in the long ago in these famed Burgundian valleys.
From The Greater Love by McCarthy, George T.
Creuznach, where a capital wine is vintaged, on the southern slopes of the Schlossberg, is at no great distance from Bingen.
From Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines by Vizetelly, Henry
The white grapes are usually gathered a fortnight or three weeks later than the black varieties, but in other respects the vintaging of them is the same.
From Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines by Vizetelly, Henry
They all answered that they were expected, and helped him to cover the figure of the vintaging girl with some strips of old linen which were soaking in a pail of water.
From His Masterpiece by Vizetelly, Ernest Alfred
When September is vintaging, October is generally sowing.
From The Stones of Venice, Volume II (of 3), by Ruskin, John
The vintaging is accomplished with great care, and only the juice which flows from the first pressure is employed.
From Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines by Vizetelly, Henry
At this Claude, stupefied, fairly stared at the emaciated Mathilde, and then at the huge vintaging woman.
From His Masterpiece by Vizetelly, Ernest Alfred
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
