The nostalgic[5] and
melancholic song[6][7] recounts the type of girls with whom the singer had relationships at various years in his life: when he was 17, "small-town girls ... on the village green"; at 21, "city girls who lived up the stair"; at 35, "
blue-blooded girls of independent means". Each of these years he calls "very good". In the song's final verse, the singer reflects that he is older, and in the autumn of his years, and he thinks back on his entire life "as
vintage wine". All of these romances were sweet to him, like a wine from a very good (i.e., vintage) year.
Composition
Drake composed the song in 1961 at the suggestion of record producer Artie Mogull, who told Drake that
Bob Shane of
The Kingston Trio needed a solo to include in the group's upcoming album Goin' Places.[8] Drake wrote the song in less than a day,[9] although he had been considering employing the metaphor of life as a vintage wine in a lyric for several years prior.[10]
Ervin Drake's inspiration to write the song was his then wife-to-be, Edith Vincent Bermaine. She was a showgirl whom he had dated and eventually married twenty years after the song was written.[11]
The Kingston Trio introduced the song on their album Goin' Places (1961). This is the recording that influenced Frank Sinatra to want to record his own version.[2][12]
British pop star
Robbie Williams recorded a version for his album Swing When You're Winning (2001), in duet with Sinatra's original vocals. The instrumental track was also sampled from Sinatra's original recording.
Australian entertainer Bob Downe performed a unique rendition of the song replacing the original lyrics with Australian references during his Viva Bob Vegas Tour of 2022.
Frank Sinatra's version of the song is featured in the Spike Lee film Jungle Fever (1991).[16]
In a 1993 episode of The Simpsons ("
Duffless"),
Homer sings a
parody of this song entitled "I Drank Some Very Good Beer", recounting the first beer he ever purchased (with a fake ID, on which the name was Brian McGee), and he "stayed up listening to
Queen."[17]