Was it a good vintage? Vintage variation is generally less in warm new world wine regions such as California, South Australia, Argentina, Chile and South Africa. When buying wine from “Classic” regions such as Bordeaux, Burgundy or Champagne then it sometimes pays to know what years to avoid. Generally the price goes up in better years and down in poor years. Thanks to global warming most of this decade has had “good” or better vintages. Avoid 2002 in most of Europe (except Burgundy).