The vintages Sometimes you meet the argument, that the wines of Chateauneuf du Pape from different years don't differ much in quality. The argument is the pleasant climate, where the amount of sunny hours nearly always are satisfying and where the often heavy rainfalls are short in time and mostly are quickly neutralised by the mistral. Therefore if the weather in September makes it possible to pick the grapes in dry periods when they are matured it's easy to make good wines in the appellation. Furthermore you can see that the prices at the producers are very constant - they rise a little every year but don't differ much in different vintages. These arguments are often used by wine merchants and make some sense but it's not the whole truth. You can also meet the argument that with the modern tecniques available in the vinification process the modern educated wine maker can make miracles. Perhaps this argument makes some sense for industrial produced wines, but if you listen to the small but experienced producers in Chateauneuf du Pape you will hear another story. They will tell you that "in the cellar you can't repair the wines but you can easily spoil them" (Gerard Charvin - photo to the right). The essential basis for a good wine is the quality of the grapes when they arrive at the cellar.

The real decisive factor behind a good vintage is the weather conditions thrugh the whole growing season. Of course it's important that the weather in the harvest season allow the grapes to be picked at the excact right moment but it's also important that the flowering in spring is succesful and that rain, wind and sun are present when needed. Too much rain can bring disease. Drought can result in small grapes and a low yield. 
As for all farmers around the world the wine growers in Chateauneuf du Pape look at the sky every day to follow the weather. Lucky for them - and the lovers of their wines - most days are sunny.

There can be intense discussions about if one or another vintage is exellent or good. Since 1998 there has only been one year 2002 that all agreed were bad. Maybe 1999 is not as good as expected but the rest 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005 are very good or exellent years.

It can be difficult to predict a vintage. If a wine is tasted very young (1-3 years old) - and this will be the case if you visit producers and taste the available wine from barrels or bottles - it's not certain this wine will redeem its promises some years later. Wine evolves constantly over the years and may surprice when you retaste it after some years.
If you relay on the points or rankings from the wine writers you have to take in account that different people have quite different expectations to the taste of a wine. Some want a wine to be able to be kept for 30 years, others have the opinion that a wine should taste delightful after 5 years. 
In some years the quality can be generally good but be different at different producers. In 1998 everyone could make excellent wines. In some other "good" years for example 2003 the quality is more uneven. 

If you have confidence in one expert or another you can consult his vintage chart. Here are shown some examples:

RP: Robert Parker
VIN: Vintages (South Africa)
WE: Wine Enthusiast (US)

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Updated 06-10-2006