Rhone Vintage Flashcards
Rhône: 1971
Solid vintage in the Northern Rhone, very robust.
Wines from the south are light and faded early.
Rhône: 1973 -1975
Rainy and dilute; terrible vintages in North and South.
Rhône: 1977
Cool summer, rain at harvest. Disaster throughout.
Rhône: 1978
Cool summer, but warm fall and late harvest with perfect weather. Best vintage of the decade in both regions, and one of the top vintages of the century for the North.
Rhône: 1979
Excellent in both regions; softer, more fragrant wines than 1978.
Rhône: Great vintages of the 1970’s
1978
1979
Rhône: Disaster vintages of the 1970’s
1973-1975
1977
Rhône: 1981
Northern Rhone troubled by rain at harvest; the wines are thin.
Southern Rhone had a warm, dry summer with excellent quality.
Rhône: 1982
Dry year, with heat spikes, early harvest. Heat in September caused troubles in fermentation.
Northern Rhone produced some great wines.
Southern Rhones are jammy and overripe, not ageworthy.
Rhône: 1983
Excellent in the Northern Rhone - best since 1978.
South is erratic and unpredictable.
Rhône: 1984
Very poor. Wines are light and underripe in both regions (South slightly better, but not good).
Rhône: 1985
A very successful vintage - opulent and soft.
Rhône: 1986
Firm, tannic, and joyless across the board.
Rhône: 1987
Cold, rainy, and snowy - poor and dilute. Some good wines from Cote-Rotie - everything else suffered.
Rhône: 1988
Very good, slow-maturing wines - “classic.” Unfairly overshadowed by 1989 and 1990.
Rhône: 1989
Outstanding, highly concentrated.
Rhône: Great vintages of the 1980’s
1981 (South only) 1982 (North only) 1983 (North only) 1985 1988 1989
Rhône: Disaster vintages of the 1980’s
1981 (north only)
1983 (south only)
1984
1987
Rhône: 1990
Sumptuous and powerful, huge critical scores across the valley. Fleshier than 1989, with lower acidity in the south.
Rhône: 1991
Very good and rich in the North.
Torrential rain at harvest in the south - total disaster.
Rhône: 1992
Serious rain at harvest devastated the crop in both regions.
Rhône: 1993
Again, rain at harvest produced thin, dilute wines.
Rhône: 1994
Better than the three preceding vintages, but still rather variable and inconsistent.
Rhône: 1995
Outstanding and full-bodied in both regions. Firm tannic backbone, very ageworthy.
Rhône: 1996
Cool and damp, high acidity. Fair.
Rhône: 1997
Unsettled weather in the north (hot v. rainy); overripeness and rasination in the south. Variable.
Rhône: 1998
Some heat stress in the north, but by and large a successful vintage.
Southern Rhone’s second great vintage of the 1990’s (after 1990 itself).
Rhône: 1999
Exceptional in the North, and larger quantity than 1998.
Rather more variable in the south - rain at harvest created some rot issues.
Rhône: Great vintages of the 1990’s
1990
1991 (North only)
1998
1999
Rhône: Disaster vintages of the 1990’s
1991 (South only)
1992
1993
Rhône: 2000
Good but not exceptional in the Northern Rhone.
Southern Rhone is lush, soft, and silky; highly regarded.
Rhône: 2001
Excellent in both regions; higher tannins and fimer structure in both North and South than 2000.
Rhône: 2002
Massive rains diluted and destroyed the harvest. Worst vintage of the 2000’s.
Rhône: 2003
Heat Wave vintage - massive, concentrated.
After the rains of 2002, the water table was high, so clay-planted wines in the south are most successful.
Rhône: 2004
Near perfect weather, but the results are good but not great.
Rhône: 2005
As with the rest of France. Yields down slightly.
Rhône: 2006
Good vintage with some rain on and off at harvest. Wines are more charming than powerful.
Rhône: 2007
Northern Rhone is similar to Burgundy - patchy summer with warmth at harvest. Difficult but good. Severe hail in Cote-Rotie.
Southern Rhone had an exceptional, silky, lush vintage.
Rhône: 2008
Rainy and difficult. Light and somewhat dilute.
Rhône: 2009
As with the rest of France. Some southern wines are overly alcoholic.
Rhône: Great vintages of the 2000’s
2000 (South) 2001 2005 2007 (South) 2009 2010
Rhône: Poor vintages of the 2000’s
2002
2008
Rhône: 2010
As with the rest of France.
Rhône: 2011
More lightly styled than the preceeding vintages; cool summer and some rain at harvest. North is more successful than the south.
Rhône: 2012
Difficult vintage; smaller crop than usual (rain at flowering). Lowered acidity, high tannin. The Rhone overall was more successful than most across Europe.
Rhône: 2013
Serious coulure in the Grenache plagued the Southern Rhone. Late start, short growing season.
Rhône: 2014
Very rainy summer; serious Suzukii Fruit Fly issues in the North, particularly Cote-Rotie. Lighter in style, early drinking.
Rhône: 2015
Easy, warm growing season. Very promising - best vintage since 2010, at least.
Exceptional early 20th century vintages in the Rhone
1928 1929 1934 1945 1947 1949 1955 1959 1961 1966 1967
