Vintage variation? Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.

Every now and again, I'm reminded that grape-growing is agriculture, and that wine producers are essentially farmers who process what they grow before selling it. We often think of wine as totally different from other agricultural products. But like other crops, vines have to cope with weather conditions, diseases and predators that affect the amount they produce each year.

Last week, I tasted wine with a Niagara winery owner and a winemaker who were cutting their Ottawa visit short to go home to see how much damage hail had done to their vines. Two days before that, a Prince Edward County winery owner was complaining about this summer's weather, alternating warm and sunny with cool and wet periods, and the mildew it fostered in her vineyards.

No matter what the growing season is like, bread, milk and cheese taste pretty much the same. (This will probably bring the bread, milk and cheese aficionados down on my head!)

But wine can wear its vintage in the ripeness and size of the grapes and the character of the wine they make.

Warmer conditions tend to make more concentrated, flavourful and higher-alcohol wines.

Cooler weather often produces more structured and leaner styles, with lower alcohol.

Ontario's cool-climate wine regions, like those in other parts of the world, like Bordeaux and Burgundy, have quite marked vintage variations.

In Ontario, for example, 2006 was a tough year. Many 2006 reds are too lean and some have unripe flavours, although most whites turned out well.

Last year, 2007, was much better, and the whites are showing very well. (It's too early to judge the 2007 reds.)

But Ontario wine consumers are largely shielded from vintage variation because most wines in the LCBO are stylistically pretty consistent from year to year.

Many come from regions where annual weather conditions don't vary a lot.

In most wine regions of Australia, Chile, California, South Africa, and Argentina, for example, one vintage is pretty much like another. It might be a little cooler one year, there might be a drought another, somewhat more or less sunshine, but the large-production wines taste almost the same year after year.

Many wines are made to taste the same, year after year. Depending on the region, winemakers can add water, sugar, acid and tannins to produce the style they want.

Marketers know that most consumers want one vintage of their usual wine to taste like the next. Most wine-drinkers, in fact, pay no attention to vintage, but they would notice if their favourite wine tasted sweeter or was more acidic.

It's generally wines from the smaller-volume producers, and from more volatile climates that are more variable from year to year. And while many wine-lovers claim they enjoy tasting vintage, I've yet to hear anyone say how much they love wine from a poor one.