[f. prec.]
1. intr. (See quot.) rare.
1598. Florio, Vendemmiare, to vintage, to gather grapes, to make wine.
2. trans. a. To strip (vines or a vineyard) of grapes at the vintage. Also fig. ? Obs.
1618. Bacon, Lett. (1734), 87. I humbly beseech his Majestie that these royal boughs of forfeiture may not be vintaged or cropped by private suitors.
1648. trans. Senault’s Paraphr. Job, 222. They either carry away the corne which is not yet cut, or pillage the vines which are not yet vintaged.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xxiii. 99. The Devil take me … if the Close of Sevillé had not been all gather’d, vintag’d, glean’d and destroy’d.
b. To gather (grapes) in order to make wine; to make (wine) from gathered grapes.
Usually with special reference to the production of wine of fine quality (cf. VINTAGE sb. 1 c).
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 605/2. If … a first growth is vintaged a little too late and does not succeed so well as some second growths.
1890. Pall Mall G., 29 Sept., 3/2. The Department of the Marne, where the true sparkling champagne is vintaged.
