Reading Vintages...

Perhaps it is just me, but of late I have bought a number of bottles where the vintage of the wine is written is such extraordinarily small font that one has to assume some message is intended to be sent by the winemaker choosing to use such tiny script. One subsequent speck of dirt or one minor discoloration of the label would make a “5” indecipherable from a “6” or a “6” from an “8”. Or in fact most numbers from any other number.  And not in every case is the vintage restated on the back label.

Examples include Roagna’s Barbarescos, Giulia Negri’s Barolos and Eric Texier's Rhone wines.

Perhaps the message is that vintages are less important than commonly thought. But surely one should be able to read the vintage on the label.

I wonder why they do this ?