Vintage Date

[jduffy1952]

My wife and I are in the process of making our first wine at home using a Vintner's Reserve kit. We're making our own labels for the bottles and we're told that the vintage date should be the date the grapes were harvested. How do I find this date?

The code on the label reads...Vintners Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
0730908 0559 (do you think the 0908 means Sept 2008 ??)

under the bar code - 29181 00176

 

[cpfan]

With most kits you don't really know that year that the grapes were harvested.

The manufacturing code is translated as

07 = 7th kit run of the production day
309 = 309th day of the calendar year, in this case early November?
08 = 2008
0559 = 559th kit in this batch

So it could be 2008 or 2007 grapes. I use either the start date or bottling date if I put a date on my wine labels. I don't think in terms of 'vintage'.

Steve