Bordeaux Vintage Flashcards
Bordeaux: 1959
Exceptional
Perfect weather - warm, sunny
Lush, easy drinking up front - much like 2009
Have aged very well, but are harder to find due to popularity and drinkability at release.
Bordeaux: 1960
Abysmal
Destroyed by rain
Bordeaux: 1961
Exceptional
Very warm, dry summer
Early harvest with low yields
Small, thick-skinned, deeply concentrated berries
Rich, tannic, ageworthy
Bordeaux: 1962
Fair for still wine
Exceptional sweet wine
Bordeaux: 1963
Abysmal
Cold, wet, rotted
Palmer declassified entire crop
Bordeaux: 1964
Disaster vintage Left Bank and Sauternes
Excellent on Right Bank - harvested before devastating rains
Bordeaux: 1965
Disaster vintage
Bordeaux: 1966
Second best of the 1960’s
Hard and tannic on release
Still drinking well now
Bordeaux: 1967-1969
1967: Light, easy-drinking, over the hill, very good in Sauternes
1968: Disaster, Wettest year since 1951
1969: Similar
Bordeaux: Great vintages of the 1960’s
1961
1962 (Sauternes only)
1966 (by comparison)
Bordeaux: Disaster vintages of the 1960’s
1960
1963
1964
1965
1968
1969
Bordeaux: 1970
Excellent
First good vintage since 1961
Big crop, heavy production
Bordeaux: 1972-1974
Series of disasters
Cold, wet, rainy
Bordeaux: 1975
Only fair - hard and tannic - but best of a string of bad vintages
Exceptional in sauternes
Bordeaux: 1977
Disaster vintage
The other worst vintage of the decade
Bordeaux: Great vintages of the 1970’s
1970
1975 (by comparison)
Bordeaux: Disaster vintages of the 1970’s
1972
1973
1974
1977
Bordeaux: 1982
Vintage of the century
Phenomenal, perfect weather
Bordeaux: 1983
Very good for dry wines
Spectacular for sweet wines - best since 1967
Bordeaux: 1985
Exceptional
Particularly good on the right bank
Elegance over power