The Vintages – 1855 Onwards

Harvest data from Tastet-Lawton brokerage firm (primarily focused on Médoc wines), plus reports in Cocks et Feret, Institute of Oenology harvest reports and châteaux archives. Based on harvest notes first published in Inside Bordeaux.

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1850s	1860s	1870s	1880s	1890s	1900s	1910s	1920s	1930s
1940s	1950s	1960s	1970s	1980s	1990s	2000s	2010s	2020s

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1850s

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1855
As the Exposition Universelle unfolded in Paris, back home in Bordeaux, harvest started on October 7th. The yields were very low due to powdery mildew in the vines, and the wines were generally of average quality (although judged to be of high quality initially, and so reached good prices at first). At this point in history, Malbec was the dominant grape in the Médoc, largely because it had proved resistant to mildew, although it suffered frequently with uneven fruit set.

1856
Harvest began October 1st. Small quantities due to powdery mildew, and the wines were of ordinary quality, in many cases lacking in colour, and strength, and affected by flavours of rot.

1857
Ordinary harvest.

1858
Very good, full bodied wines, with particular plaudits going to Chateau Lafite (it was not yet Lafite Rothschild)

1859
Ordinary, taste heavily affected by powdery mildew.

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1860s

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1860
Harvest began September 26th. The yield was high but the wines were very light and of average quality.

1861
A severe frost reduced the harvest, concentrating the remaining grapes and there were some high quality wines were priced highly by the chateaux. Abraham Lincoln sworn in as 16th president of the United States.

1862
Reasonable quantity, but average quality, as powdery mildew was still affecting the grapes. In Bordeaux, the city hall burned to the ground in a fire.

1863
Harvest started on September 23rd, but there was a lack of maturity in many grapes.

1864
Excellent for both quantity and quality, with ripe fruit and great aromatics. This was the first large crop after the devastation caused by powdery mildew, which appeared in 1852 and was brought under control in the early 1860s with the use of sulphur sprays.

1865
An early harvest, starting on September 6th, with good wines that were high in tannins. Many took decades to come round but proved exceptionally long-lasting. The American Civil war finished on April 9 of this year.

1866
Harvest started September 21st, with wines of unimpressive quality. In the southern Rhône this year, a grower reported the death of a block of vines with diseased roots. This turned out to be the first reported case of Phylloxera in France.

1867
Harvest started September 18th, good quantity produced, but average quality.

1868
An abundant harvest, starting early on September 7th, with high hopes for quality. The wines were sold at fairly high prices and there was a rush to buy, with broker Guillaume Lawton writing in October 1868, ‘Almost all the Médoc has been sold. Barely an eighth of the crop remains’. Lafite sold at auction this year to Baron James Mayer de Rothschild. His daughter was married to Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild at Mouton.

1869
Harvest started September 15th. An excellent year, with complex, rounded and long-lasting wines. Good yields also, after a dry, even growing season and perfect conditions during harvest. Similar style to the 1953, 90 years later.

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1870s

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1870
Harvest started September 10th. Large yield, good ripe and powerful fruits. Quite a large crop for the time, and legendary for being one of the greatest pre-Phylloxera vintages. In 2000, the late Paul Pontallier of Château Margaux reported that this wine was still displaying freshness at 130 years old and the Lafite 1870 was described by Michael Broadbent in his Vintage Wine book in the year 2000 as ‘one of the all-time greats, and at its best a powerhouse’.

1871
Harvest started September 18th. Good yield, wines were light but elegant. The Spring of 1870 had been impacted by one of the coldest winters on record in the region, where temperatures dropped to -14C and the Garonne river was frozen solid. The growing season began late as a result, with irregular ripening.

1872
Harvest started September 22nd. Average quality wines after rains that fell pretty much conditionally through the summer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York – as did the Ecole de Mousset near Pauillac, a school for the children of winegrowers that was financed by the Mouton and Lafite Rothschilds.

1873
Harvest started September 20th. Average quality, badly affected by frost on April 28th that meant the yields were tiny across the whole of Bordeaux. This was one of the last vintages made by Goudal at Lafite, the manager who had taken the chateau through the 1855 classification, and was considered an excellent wine at the Pauillac estate.

1874
Harvest started September 14th. Very good quality with excellent weather lasting through August and September. Disraeli becomes British prime minister.

1875
Harvest started September 24th. Excellent quality and quantity, with elegant fruity wines, one of the biggest harvests of the century. This was also the real beginning of the Phylloxera crisis in Bordeaux. Within a few years production was so low that the port of Bordeaux began to import wines from other regions, and notably from Rioja.

1876
Harvest began September 26th, with low yields and average quality. A late frost in mid April reduced yields, and a rainy September meant widespread rot.

1877
Harvest began September 2Oth, with reasonable yields. Light wines, but with elegance and charm.

1878
Harvest began September 19th. Very good quality wines. Often described as the last pre-Phylloxera vintage in the Médoc (although the first reported instance of a Phylloxera infection came in the southern Rhône in 1866 and this was also the first year that laws officially sanctioning grafting of vines onto American rootstock were passed in France, although not in Bordeaux for another three years). Ulysse Gayon was appointed professor of chemistry at the Faculté des Sciences in Bordeaux, where he would develop the Bordeaux mixture for treating down mildew.

1879
Harvest began October 9th, very late for the time. Ordinary quality, after a rainy Spring, uneven flowering and a dismal summer.

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1880s

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1880
Harvest began September 21st. Small quantity, mediocre quality, impacted by powdery mildew and Phylloxera.

1881
Harvest began September 12th. Solid wines after a hot dry summer, but lacking in charm. Grafting of vines onto American rootstock remained prohibited in Bordeaux until this year (and would remain illegal in Burgundy until 1887). Malbec and Carmanère proved difficult to graft, and so began to lose popularity among growers.

1882
Harvest began September 28th. Average sized harvest, light but elegant wines, impacted by downy mildew problems, adding woe to the Phylloxera issues. In Bordeaux the building of the Bassin à Flot marina in Bacalan was completed, and the centre of maritime activity moved for the first time from the quayside of Chartrons that had been the centre of the wine trade for so many centuries.

1883
Harvest began September 27th. Average yield, light wines.

1884
Harvest began September 25th. Low yield, at least one third down from average. Problems with mildew spreading, and the wines were of average quality, although researchers such as Ulysse Gayon were beginning to understand ways to fight downy mildew.

1885
Harvest began September 29th, again beset by mildew problems, which left a moldy taste in the wines. Very low yields, at least half the average.

1886
Harvest began September 25th, again right in the grip of the mildew problem, with added problems of frost early in the season – although the weather improved for harvest. The taste of many of the wines was compromised, and yields were low, around two-thirds of average. This was the year that Alexis Millardet published his report on the Treatment of Downy Mildew and Rot, in which he demonstrated the efficacy of the Bordeaux Mixture (a combination of copper sulphate and lime) that he had developed with Ulysse Gayon.

1887
Harvest began September 19th. Anti-mildew treatments were starting coming into effect at this point with the arrival of the Bordeaux Mixture, and the wines were clean and healthy, and largely well-structured. Only a half crop, but better quality than the previous few years. A new law introduced on December 1 of this year obliged winegrowers to declare any new plantings.

1888
Good yield, and a good quality year. Elegant, well-structured wines. Harvest started on October 2nd across the Médoc. For the second year, the Bordeaux Mixture anti-mildew treatment saved the vintage.

1889
Harvest started September 29th. An abundant year in terms of yield, with wines that were of reasonable quality. A Christmas Tree was decorated for the first time at the White House under President Benjamin Harrison, and the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated in Paris, with 10,000 gas street lamps lit across the steeple and platforms.

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1890s

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1890
Harvest date September 29, making the most of an Indian summer after a slow start to the vintage. Well structured, deeply-coloured wines that aged well.

1891
Average yield, but the wines themselves were of mediocre quality, many displaying unripe aromas, despite harvest not starting until October 2nd.

1892
Harvest across the Medoc started on September 22nd, but the yield was around half the average, following a severe frost in April, a heatwave in mid August where temperatures shot up to 43C with a hot Sirocco wind, which slowed growth and caused some blockages. The wines were a little lacking in colour, but elegant.

1893
Very early harvest, August 17th for Chateau Margaux, with an exceptionally high yield – the biggest recorded at the Margaux estate (even during the 1980s crop sizes did not reach this high). The cellar master at the time said picking had to be stopped for six days because they did not have enough vats in the cellar. Across the Médoc early excitement about quality soon faded, but certain estates made wines that lasted well into the next century. Lafite Rothschild began replanting its vines on American rootstocks for the first time – one of the latest estates to do so.

1894
Harvest began in the Médoc on October 4th. It was tough to reach full ripeness, and the wines were green and thin. Small yields, around half the average (although I should add that I tasted the Lafite 1894 in 2018 and it was still full of energy, even if majoring on autumn leaf aromatics and clearly tawny in colour).

1895
Harvest 22nd  September, average yield. This was a very hot year, with a heatwave over most of the summer. Without modern techniques to cope with this, some wines turned to vinegar, but the ones that survived made some remarkable quality wine. The world’s first motor race was held between Paris-Bordeaux-Paris.

1896
Harvest began September 20th, with an abundant crop and wines that were elegant, delicate and good quality.

1897
Harvest began September 20th of a low yielding vintage impacted by downy and powdery mildew, hail in April, and a cool damp summer, crop about 50% of average, and uninteresting quality.

1898
Harvest began September 23rd, a small yield around 50% of average, with some very dense, structured, tannic wines that were hard when young, but which developed well. Harvest took place under hot and dry conditions.

1899
Harvest began on September 24th, and ushered in an excellent vintage, with wines of very high quality. Among the most exceptional wines of the year were Ausone, Lafite Rothschild, Latour and Haut-Brion, all of which aged well into the next century, a few still going strong today. The first Bordeaux trams began running this year, and King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway visited the Médoc, signing the guest book at Château Lafite Rothschild.

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1900s

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1900
One of those rare (at the time, before modern oenology) years where nature gave both quantity and quality, and this was an exceptional vintage to usher in the new century. The weather played ball from beginning to end of the growing season, and the wines displayed a suppleness and velvet texture – the Chateau Margaux 1900 is generally considered to be one of the greatest wines ever made, although I sadly can’t confirm that from personal experience. Around two-thirds of French vines were grafted onto American rootstock by this year.

1901
Harvest began September 19th. Following on from the millennium vintage, the quantity was again high, but this time the quality wasn’t there, and the wines instead were thin, and attracted little interest, bringing prices down. British monarch Queen Victoria died after reigning for 64 years.

1902
Harvest started on September 11th, but again an abundant crop did not mean quality wine. Challenging conditions throughout the growing season.

1903
Harvest began September 23rd. Quantities were good, even plentiful, but the quality was ‘insignificant’ in the words of Tastet-Lawton’s harvest report, after a summer with almost no sun.

1904
Harvest began September 21st. The quality improved here after a hot and dry summer, and plenty of grapes were brought in off the vines, making an abundant crop. The wines didn’t age as well as had been hoped initially.

1905
Harvest from September 14th. Abundant crop of average quality – the wines were elegant rather than tannic, but very enjoyable. Rain during harvest meant initialy high hopes for the vintage were tempered. Fraud was affecting the wines of Bordeaux, with Nathaniel Johnston, president of the Syndicate des Grands Crus Classés du Médoc reporting that a wine grower in southern France was labelling his wines ‘Médauc’ in an attempt to pass them off as being from Bordeaux.

1906
Small harvest that began on September 18th under hot dry conditions, around 50% of normal quantity, with exceptionally structured, long-living wines. The wines were extremely slow to mature, with many taking at least 25 years to reach their drinking window, and then remained powerful for decades.

1907
Harvest began on September 10, and was similar in style to 1905 – elegant, gentle, good quality, although issues with down mildew in places. First two permanent cinemas inaugurated in Bordeaux.

1908
Harvest began September 23rd. Average size of crop, and average in quality also with further problems of downy mildw. Some good examples, but hard and tannic in the main, took many decades to soften.

1909
Harvest began September 17th. An average crop, with some wines that seemed promising at first, but many disappointed on ageing. Storms and hail in August affected several estates.

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1910s

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1910
Harvest began on September 23rd but this was a pretty disastrous year – quantity down to around 25% of average, and seriously underwhelming quality. Bordeaux merchants began pushing for chapitilisation in this year; the practice of adding sugar to the grape must to increase alcohol during fermentation.

1911
Harvest from October 4th. A hot year with an excellent summer that headed to drought conditions at times, which produced some good quality wines, and an average size yield.

1912
Harvest from September 18th with a big crop under excellent harvest conditions after a cold and damp summer. Various vineyard diseases affected the health of the vines, compromising quality.

1913
Harvest from September 24th, but winemakers were still dealing with vine diseases and September was cold and wet, so again a poor quality year. On September 18 of this year, the Bordeaux Agreement that led to the first draft of Appellation d’Origine (AOC) laws was published.

1914
Harvest from September 24th a few months after World War I began. Quality nudged up this year, but initial high hopes for a brilliant vintage did not prove correct. Harvest month was also the moment when the government moved from Paris down to Bordeaux as German troops approached the French capital. They stayed for four months. In Pauillac the Rothschild families of Mouton and Lafite opened a hospital and provided barrels of wine for the patients and staff. At Pontet Canet, wives and families of soldiers who had been sent to fight were given 1 franc per day.

1915
The grapes were impacted by downy mildew following non-stop rains. Harvest began September 17th. Small crop of around 50% of normal, low quality, and made against backdrop of war.

1916
Winemakers got a good quality vintage in the cellars after a number of difficult years. Harvest began on September 20th, and wines were solid and well structured, lacking charm when young but developed well.

1917
Harvest from September 22nd. A light and elegant vintage, with some lovely aromatic structure but impacted by hail that meant a small crop (brought in by a reduced work force due to the war, with many workers receiving pay increases because of the labour shortage). The United States government chose the port of Bordeaux as one of its bases during its war efforts, manly for receiving freight and organising logistics, and a year later the American workforce in the Gironde region comprised 3,202 officers, 89,027 troops, 4,366 civilians, and 168 nurses. Elsewhere during the war years, the Russian Revolution saw the overthrow of the Tsar.

1918
Harvest from September 17th. The wines were only of average quality to mark the end of World War I, although better than many vintages in the decade. There were healthy grapes and some good colours in the wine but overall lacking structure. Of the Firsts, Haut-Brion and Latour did the best this year. Currency inflation following the war led to devaluation of the franc. Raw materials were in short supply , meaning access to barrels became difficult and prohibitively expensive.

1919
Harvest from September 20th. A good volume but only average in quality, with wines that were light and unstructured after a wet July and hot August. Overshadowed by the two following years.

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1920s

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1920
Harvest started on September 20th, with an average size crop, but truly excellent wines, some of which lasted right through the century. The whole growing season played ball, with abundant and even flowering and warm but not excessive summer.

1921
Harvest September 17th, average yield. An extremely hot year, which meant that wines were not always easy to tame in the cellars, but for those that managed to do so, this was an exceptional vintage with fully ripe fruits and high alcohols. Georges Delmas became régisseur of Haut-Brion – the first of three generations of the Delmas family to hold the position.

1922
Harvest from September 22nd, with an abundant-sized crop, but producing light and flat wines lacking in body. Baron Philippe de Rothschild took over the running of Mouton Rothschild. He decided to live on site, the first of the family at either Lafite or Mouton to do so.

1923
Harvest began September 11th. Average in size and quality, the wines were light and lacked structure. Cold and damp spring, followed by a hot summer.

1924
Harvest from September 27th. A return to form, with a good summer after a cold sping, followed by an excellent harvest with high temperatures and plenty of sunshine. Some exceptional quality wines which have gone the distance. This was the year that the 1855 First Growths agreed to make chateau bottling compulsory, after being convinced by Baron Philippe de Rothshild (Lafite was the only exception, joining the others in 1925).

1925
An early harvest began under rains on September 16th, with many grapes picked underripe so giving wines that were green and lacked interest. A big crop.

1926
Small yield around 50% of average (due to poor fruit set) but excellent quality, with harvest beginning September 28th. Very high quality, with excellent ageing potential. The vintage received the highest prices of any wine in the years between the two world wars.

1927
Harvest began September 27th. A difficult year, with unexceptional wines following a cold and wet summer. Uneven fruit set, uneven bunches, rot and mildew were all an issue – and none of it was helped by gathering economic clouds on their release. The Conseil des Crus Classés en 1855 was founded, bringing together the groups of both the Médoc and Sauternes.

1928
Some brilliant wines, with excellent tannic structure that took a good few years to soften. Dark in colour, great fruit with thick skins meaning wines that aged extremely well. The first vintage that I can say I have been lucky enough to try a number of wines of both banks over the years, and regularly still delivering even today. Because the Depression was in full swing on their release, they took a while to sell but their structure meant this didn’t matter in the long run as they could be held back at the châteaux. Harvest started September 23rd.

1929
Harvest started on September 18th, average yield. More immediately appealing than the 1928, this is one of the vintages of the century. Exceptional in red wines but particularly marked for its great sweet whites – with Château Yquem producing one of its finest ever. On October 24th, after almost all of the grapes were harvested, the stock market on Wall Street crashed in the day that became known as Black Thursday, soon spreading economic misery that would upend Bordeaux.

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1930s

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1930
Harvest started on September 19th, with a small crop of low quality, disappointing wines after poor weather during flowering and a stormy summer that saw widespread downy mildew.

1931
Harvest started on September 30th, and produced some reasonable quality wines, but little that was exceptional. The summer was extremely rainy and cool, with very little sun; and 21 days of rain in August across Bordeaux.

1932
Harvest started September 20th. Small crop around 50% of normal, poor quality. A third bad harvest coupled with the general economic crisis meant that Bordeaux slid into serious difficulties, and many classified estates began to be put up for sale. Franklin D Roosevelt became President of the US in a landslide victory.

1933
Harvest was pushed back to October 10th as winemakers waited for maturity, but quality was still difficult to come by, despite a very hot and dry summer. Light wines in the main, elegant with good aromatics on the nose but not long-lasting.

1934
Harvest began September 21st for the first really good vintage of the decade. Drought during the summer followed by just the right amount of rain in September. Abundant quantity and high quality also, with several estates making wine which still taste great today.

1935
Harvest from September 10th. A dip back down in form, with a large crop of unripe grapes that lacked fruit. American financier Clarence Dillon bought Château Haut-Brion.

1936
Harvest began September 25th. A year where it was difficult to get full ripeness in the fruit, meaning wines that tasted vegetal and hard. Bordeaux-Mérignac airport opened, and Civil War broke out in Spain. The Appellation d’Origine Controlée system in France was created this year, with AOC Cérons and AOC Côtes de Bourg among the first officially recognised in Bordeaux.

1937
Harvest started on September 26th for the second truly impressive vintage of the decade, superlative for the sweet whites of Bordeaux, and extremely good for the reds, many of which lasted for decades in peak condition. Thousands of Spanish refugees arrived in Pauillac feeling the civil war, many of whom found jobs as vineyard workers.

1938
Harvest began on September 13th. The crop was average in size and quality. Plenty of workable wines without many obvious faults, but unexceptional. Late September rains meant chateaux had to work hard to avoid rot.

1939
Harvest September 21st. As war started across Europe on September 3 of this year, the vines in Bordeaux produced a high-yielding crop of average to good quality. Light and elegant with good aromatics, but not for the long-term. Vineyard staff began to be mobilized just before harvest, meaning reduced teams for the picking.

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1940s

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1940
Harvest began on September 24th. Average yield, and relatively good quality, but the wines did not last more than a few decades. With Maréchal Pétain installed at the head of the Vichy government, Charles de Gaulle flew to London from Mérignac airport in June of this year, and German troops occupied the Médoc.

1941
Harvest from September 20th. Average yield, but the harvest quality this year was not great despite a good summer, largely because of shortages in copper sulfate used as anti-fungal treatments. The glass for the bottling began to reduce in quality due to wartime shortages, and were often lighter in colour due to a lack of lead – which was being held back for use in ammunition.

1942
Harvest started September 30th. Again the yield was of average size, but this provided one of the best quality vintages of the year wars after a beautiful summer that was disrupted by a rainy September.

1943
Harvest started on September 14th, with a good crop and some excellent bottles, although again crops were reduced by powdery mildew because of a lack of access to copper sulfate for treatment. Allied bombing of the Nazi-controlled submarine pens caused widespread damage in the Bacalan area of Bordeaux city.

1944
Harvest began on September 9th. As the privations of war really kicked in, glass for bottles and paper for labels were scarce, and the weather was also difficult, giving average quality. Pauillac town centre was bobled by the Allies on August 6 and 7, 1944, and after the success of D-Day, the last German troops left Bordeaux at the end of August. In September a triumphantly returning Charles de Gaulle visited the city.

1945
With a wave of euphoria sweeping Europe at the end of World War 2, harvest started in Bordeaux on September 21st. Yields were at least 50% of normal after severe frosts on May 2nd, The quality was excellent, with concentrated, well-structured wines, many of which still taste wonderful today. Mouton was widely recognised to have made one of the greatest wines of the vintage, and I was lucky enough to retaste it in 2019 and can confirm it is still going strong (as are other 1945 wines such as Larcis Ducasse). The ‘V’ for victory label, designed by artist Philippe Julian remains one of the estate’s most famous and successful designs.

1946
Harvest began on 7th September with an average crop size, but the wines were green and unimpressive after an extremely difficult growing season. Jacques Chaban-Delmas was elected mayor of Bordeaux; a role that he would occupy for more than 40 years.

1947
Average quantity but extremely good quality, with a harvest starting on September 25th in the Médoc, September 15th in St Emilion after a long hot summer (and temperatures still in the mid-30s during harvest). Generous and high alcohol levels, with some wines lacking stability. Several bottles from this vintage have achieved legendary status, with Cheval Blanc particularly renowned. The 1947 Figeac is still extremely impressive also as of 2019.

1948
Harvest began September 15th. Another excellent vintage, with some wonderful wines – but as the world economy was still suffering the after-effects of war, even the brilliant quality of the wines was not attracting many buyers. An average-sized crop.

1949
Harvest started from September 22nd, with average yields. Similar in quality to the 1947. Emile Peynaud reported it was the hottest summer since 1929 and the drought meant blockages in ripening for many vineyards and a small volume of crop. Many wines lasted right though the rest of the century, and certain wines still going strong today, including the much-lauded Ch Latour.

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1950s

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1950
Harvest started on September 22nd. An abundant year, with good quality wines, making the fourth vintage in a row. Elegant and aromatic rather than tannic and structured, but many excellent examples (if bottled; on the Right Bank in particular at this point winemakers were cynical about there being enough consumers willing to buy four good years one after another and so sold this off in bulk). The Commanderie du Bontemps de Médoc et des Graves was founded in this year.

1951
Harvest began in the rain on September 18th. Mediocre quality after stormy July and cold August, with grapes finding it hard to reach full ripeness. Formula 1 Grand Prix was held around the Place de Quinconces.

1952
Harvest October 2nd. Some very fine wines, good tannins and structure, took a number of years to soften and open, but many still taste great today.

1953
Harvest from September 11th. A classic year with balanced but rich fruits, finessed and capable of long ageing. Early dry spring, cool June, beautiful summer and great conditions for harvest. A brilliant vintage for Château Margaux, and a legendary Château Lafite. The first Crus Classés de Graves ranking was published this year, with 16 châteaux recognised in red, and 9 in white – with 6 recognised in both.

1954
Harvest from September 22nd. Average quantity and quality with no diseases in the vines, but a lack of maturity meant green, hard tannins.

1955
Harvest started September 14th. Very good quality, with firm, concentrated wines that lasted for decades in many cases, but often overlooked because of the dramatic events of the following vintage. The first list of classified St Emilion estates was published on June 16, 1955, with  12 Premier Grand Cru Classés and 63 Grand Crus Classés.

1956
L’Annee Noir; the devastating frosts in February, where icebergs were floating down the Garonne river in central Bordeaux, and temperatures dropped so low that many vines were killed. Overall, around 25% of normal production, and what remained was of poor quality. Harvest began on October 7th as everyone waited to see if they could bring the remaining bunches to maturity.

1957
Harvest began September 30th. After the frosts of the year before, vines had either been replanted, or were recovering, which meant this was another low yield vintage, with widespread problems with fruit set. Most did not make exceptional quality, although the high acidity meant that some lasted for many decades and got better with age.

1958
A late harvest from October 6th, average quantity at the time and average quality, with wines that rarely lasted beyond a decade or two. Last year of operation for the original tramway of Bordeaux. The St Emilion classification was amended in August and October of this year.

1959
Harvest began on September 20th with just half the average yield, as the year was extremely hot and dry. Fermentation was difficult to manage without temperature control, but quality was exceptional for those that managed it, and many wines are still going strong. The Lafite 1959 is a legendary wine and one that has never disappointed whenever I have tried it, but there are many brilliant examples of this vintage. French critic Michel Bettane made the interesting point recently that all of the young vines had died in 1956, so it was the older vines, making more complex wine, that will have been dominant in these wines.

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1960s

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1960
Harvest from September 15th, with both average yield and quality.

1961
The yields were particularly small after a hot year, with harvest starting on September 17th. Again, a legendary year in Bordeaux, with some of the best examples made in the 20th century. The 1961 Latour is widely recognised as one of the greatest wines on record. At Haut-Brion, this was the first vintage for Jean-Bernard Delmas.

1962
Harvest was fairly late, starting on October 1st, with a good quantity of grapes. A very good quality of vintage also, charming to taste, rounded and easy to drink but capable of ageing. Mouton Rothschild made the wine of the vintage, with Tastet-Lawton comparing it to the 1924.

1963
Harvest started October 1st, the same as the year before. Yields were high, but quality average.

1964
Harvest began September 21st. Again, a bumper crop, with some very good quality wines produced, capable of long ageing. But results were uneven – more successful in Pomerol and Saint Emilion than in the Médoc because of heavy rains on October 8 that impacted Cabernet Sauvignon.

1965
Harvest began September 30th, average quality after suffering from issues with rot and dilution after a rainy July, August and September, high yields.

1966
Harvest started on September 20th, and the yields were average. A classic year with elegant, structured wines that took time to soften but turned out to be better than expected. The best of the decade after 1961.

1967
Harvest September 25th. Reasonable quality and quantity. Not exceptional for reds but particularly impressive for the sweet whites of Bordeaux.

1968
Harvest started across the Médoc around September 22nd, with an average sized crop. Overall this was the wettest vintages since 1951 and full ripeness was difficult to achieve.

1969
Harvest began September 23rd. A small crop, following heavy rainfall in September, and most estates managed nothing more than average quality wine. Apollo 11 landed the first men on the Moon.

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1970s

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1970
Harvest began September 24th. One of the best vintages of the decade, with high yields and some good ripe tannins, meaning structured wines that aged well.

1971
Harvest began September 27th. A small vintage, with some excellent quality wines, elegant and gentle at the time, but few have lasted the course.

1972
Harvest held back until October 9th, but it was difficult to reach full ripeness with the difficult conditions of the vintage. To make matters worse, prices were high initially.

1973
Mouton Rothschild was promoted to First Growth in June of this year – just as globally a crisis was erupting with oil supplies. In the vines of Bordeaux, the crop was fairly large, but poor in quality after a cold, wet summer. Many estates did not even make a wine this year and to make matters worse a négociant scandal engulfed Bordeaux involving huge quantities of mislabelled wine.

1974
Harvest began on September 24th with a large crop. Quality was more difficult, and most chateaux had very little money after a run of bad vintages and the crises of the past few years. A number of estates went back on the market at this point.

1975
Harvest began on September 22nd, and a reduced quantity allowed better concentration and flavours. I did a horizontal of this vintage a few years ago and wines that were tough for many decades had softened into rather lovely bottles with Forts de Latour, Haut-Brion and Lynch Bages particularly impressive.

1976
Harvest began September 13th. The best wines this year were the sweet whites. The reds were more difficult.

1977
Frost hit on both March 31st and April 9th, meaning a small crop. Harvest began October 4th, the wines were in the main hard and unyielding, and did little to improve upon ageing. André Mentzelopoulos bought Chateau Margaux, and began a major programme of investment.

1978
Average yield, with harvest starting around October 5th. This was one of the best vintages of the decade, with a reasonable size crop and classic, elegant when at their best.

1979
Harvest began on October 1st. A high-yielding vintage, with some good quality wines that were harmonious and well-balanced although not as long-lasting as the 1978s.

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1980s

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1980
A late harvest began on October 10th. Reasonable yields and supple, fruity wines that were highly appealing when young. André Mentzelopoulos died in this year, leaving his daughter Corinne to take over the running of Chateau Margaux.

1981
Harvest began on September 28th. Average size crop, and good quality wines, although the onset of heavy rain in early October caused issues with full ripeness.

1982
The Médoc harvest began on September 13th, under perfect conditions after a textbook growing season. Rich fruit, opulent and seductive wines that combined quality with a high yield (almost double that of the 1959s). This is a vintage that is still delivering, with my favourites including Pichon Comtesse, Mouton and Latour. Average alcohol 12.5%abv and average yield 60hl/h. A young Robert Parker changed the market for Bordeaux wines with his reviews praising the quality of the year.

1983
Harvest began on September 26th, on what was a more difficult vintage on the Right Bank than the Left Bank because rain in September was tough on the Merlot grape. Margaux had significantly less rain, and both Ch Margaux and Ch Palmer made exceptional wines, and both still taste excellent today, with many bottles better than the 1982 from these properties (for me as of 2019 Ch Margaux is better in 1982 and Ch Palmer tops the 1983).

1984
Harvest began on October 1st, but this was an average yield and average quality. The Sino-British joint declaration of Hong Kong is signed in December of this year.

1985
Harvest began on September 25th, with Pomerol and St Emilion making the best wines of the year. Abundant harvest, very good quality. Lynch Bages’ 1975 vintage headed into space in June of this year aboard the Discovery shuttle, the 18th flight of NASA’s space shuttle programme.

1986
A year with serious staying power, and many superb examples of structured, tannic, concentrated wines that showed themselves to be capable of excellent ageing. Harvest started on September 26th, and the yields were healthy, with the best wines on the Left Bank and Cabernet Sauvignon.

1987
Harvest began on October 1st, with average size yield and reasonable quality. The wines were supple, fruity and elegant. The last vintage made by Baron Philippe de Rothschild.

1988
Harvest began on September 28th. A better vintage on the Right than Left Bank, as warm but wet weather during harvest meant estates had to pick to avoid rot and not all Cabernet Sauvignon reached full ripeness. Excellent sweet white wines. A bumper crop, classically-styled with good structure, firm fruit, and uniformly worth ageing. Baron Philippe de Rothschild died in 1988, bringing to an end a monumental winemaking career that began when he first arrived in Pauillac in 1922.

1989
An exceptional year, with a hot dry summer leading to an early harvest, with most of the Médoc well underway by September 3rd, but stretched out until mid-October, as the good weather held out for so long. The Bordeaux oenology school opened its yearly summary with the words: ‘1989 will leave an unforgettable memory for most winemakers’. Haut-Brion produced the legendary wine this vintage but this is generally seen as a Right Bank year, with Petrus leading the pack.

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1990s

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1990
Again, a seriously good vintage, following a hot summer, with harvest starting on September 10th. Good volumes of wine. July and August were drier and hotter than in 1989, and grape ripening in the continued heat of September was helped by two short bursts of rain on 14-15 September and again on 22-23 September. Generally considered a Left Bank year, with many exceptional wines that are still tasting young, although Cheval Blanc made one of its greatest ever viintages. Most estates dropped their prices by around 20% at the moment of en primeur because the year was seen as less high quality than the 1989, but the 1990 vintage has more than proved its quality and overall I would say that today 1990 is a surer bet than the 1989s.

1991
Harvest started on September 27th. A heavy frost on April 21st meant there was a very low yield in this vintage, but there were some good wines made. Most are firmly in their drinking window.

1992
Harvest began September 24th. A big crop, but only of average quality after a difficult summer. Few wines are still going strong at this point. The Maastricht treaty was signed on February 7th, signaling the founding of the European Union.

1993
Harvest began September 20th. Again, a large crop, with a slightly better average quality than 1992, particularly for the dry whites that had been harvested before the rain arrived during the red harvest (although a classic year for checking local conditions, because the rain varied from 125mm to 225mm in September depending on area). The wines are in their drinking window, with many now at the far side of it. Groupe Artemis, owned by Francois Pinualt, buys Chateau Latour.

1994
A classic vintage – good tannic structure, firm fruit, needed some ageing to soften out. Harvest started on September 13th, around 10 days earlier than usual, and there was an average size yield.  Rains during September meant some grapes were picked earlier than would have been ideal.

1995
Harvest began on September 13th. A very good vintage, following the previous four uneven years after a hot summer that resembled that of 1990. The red wines were supple, harmonious and extremely high quality, and yields were abundant. In density, the wines are similar to 1986.

1996
A hot early season, with even and rapid flowering, and a dry but not overly hot August (with rain at the end, particularly on the Right Bank). September was dry but 1°C cooler than average. Harvest began on September 18th  and the rain that fell around 24 September meant a threat of rot meant that led some estates to pick before full ripeness was reached. For those that held on, good weather returned in October. All of this meant chunky tannins, and 1996 was long seen as an austere and backwards vintage; one that needed patience. An excellent vintage in the Médoc particularly, with age-worthy wines that have developed well, thanks to high sugars and high acidity. Châteaux Latour and Margaux are particularly excellent in this vintage, as is Chateau Haut-Brion Blanc.

1997
Harvest started on September 7th. The wines were initially judged to be easy, charming and supple, but very few have gone the distance. This year is also remembered for being highly priced on initial release, for wines that were not sufficiently age-worthy to merit it.

1998
An abundant year with a hot August, where nature gave both quantity and quality. There were some excellent wines made, many of which are still tasting wonderful, particularly on the Right Bank in Saint Emilion and Pomerol, with both Cheval Blanc and Château Figeac particular recommendations from my recent tastings. In the Médoc also, where harvest began on September 23rd, there were some great wines that are still very much at full strength, despite rains that hit right at the end of September.

1999
Harvest started August 30th. A good yield, and a harmonious, good quality vintage. Not everybody succeeded in this year, and a hail storm in early September badly affected St Emilion vines. In the Médoc, the fine weather held until late September, after which rains caused some dilution. Overall, some good to very good wines, mainly because by this stage, oenology practices meant wineries were better able to cope with the challenges.

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2000s

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2000
Harvest started for the Millennium vintage started on September 18th, lasting right through til mid-October and allowing for success across varieties and terroirs (although the sweet wines were affected by rain from 10-15 October, as were some very late Cabernet Sauvignons). Crop size was abundant, and the quality was exceptional; rich, tannic and deeply coloured. The best vintage since 1990, certainly in terms of consistency across all parts of Bordeaux, and although I found many remained fairly foursquare for a number of years, they are softening very beautifully today.

2001
Harvest began on September 25th. An under-valued vintage, offering an elegant, classically-styled with great aromatics. Particularly impressive for Sauternes and Barsac, with Ch Yquem particularly legendary, but the best reds also offer an unusual combination elegance, freshness and elegant fruits. Less consistent overall than 2000, but real spots of brilliance. Château Figeac has long been one of my favourite wines of the vintage, as is Châteua Haut-Bailly.

2002
Harvest began September 24th. Mixed quality, with another year where September saved a difficult early season after a cool July and rainy August. Cabernet Sauvignon did better than Merlot, but most wines are ready to drink. Mouton Rothschild made one of the best examples of the vintage, and generally those who were able to wait until mid-October to bring in the last grapes did the best.

2003
Harvest began September 3rd. A heatwave year, with some of the earliest picking dates on record for both white and red grapes (the veraison colour change was 20 days in advance of average over the previous 50 years) and low yields. Cabernet Sauvignon withstood the extreme summer heat better than Merlot, and this is a year to look for fresh terroirs, such as limestone on the Right Bank and the clays of St Estèphe, or those along the Garonne river, in the Médoc. Excessively dry or hot soils had more issues with water stress and blockages, and sugar concentration was exacerbated by evaporation due to high temperatures. Fermentation needed to be carefully controlled to deal with high alcohols.

2004
Harvest began September 16th. Some quality wines that offer good value, and the yields were high as the vines made up for their low yields the year before. Good weather at flowering, and harvest, but patchy in between meant again that it’s the top estates of Bordeaux, who could afford the time and effort in the vineyard, that really shone.

2005
Harvest stared September 7th. One of the greatest vintages of the past 50 years, with near perfect weather conditions across the region and the Faculty of Oenology remarking on how it would ‘remain long in the memory for its quality’. The wines still need time to open up, although many are tasting wonderful now; balanced and nuanced yet full of fruit. Easily my favourite vintage of the past few decades, and although it was hot and dry, it was less intense than 2003, as culmulative temperatures over July and August show – 760C in 2003 with six days hitting 40C, compared to 632C in 2005 with only two days over 35C.

2006
Harvest started September 18th. Classic vintage, with some good quality wines that need a few more years. The weather was variable, with hot spells in July and September, a cool August and some storms in mid-September that threatened rot. The weather was fine through the last two weeks of September, and Mouton Rothschild was wine of the vintage, although rain in October put pressure of many Médoc estates that did not have early-ripening terroirs. The institute of oenology commented that ‘Merlot planted on clay and Cabernet on the finest gravel soils withstood the weather conditions of this vintage better than those planted on sandy or silty soils’.

2007
Harvest started September 19th. An early-drinking year, because a damp summer meant lighter-style wines, although again terroir and care in the vineyard shows through. Some excellent white wines, and one of the best years for Barsac and Sauternes in the new millennium, comparable to 2001.

2008
Harvest started October 1st. Some classic wines, particularly those who waited to take full benefit of the Indian summer that allowed for long, slow ripening after a more difficult early season (even the white wines did not really get underway until September 15th, and there were particular issues in Pessac-Léognan after storms and frosts in March that saw many estates losing more than 50% of their crop). May was the second wettest since 1946, meaning there were problems with flowering and fruit set, but from mid-September to mid-October temperatures rose to an average of 22C and late-ripening Cabernet benefitted the most, meaning you should look to Pauillac and St Julien for the best of the year. Prince Robert of Luxembourg succeeded his mother the Duchess de Mouchy as President of Domaine Clarence Dillon (Haut-Brion and La Mission). Average-sized yields.

2009
An excellent year, with hot dry weather, combined with fresh nights that encouraged good aromatics. Initially described as the vintage of the century, with many estates making truly wonderful bottles – and prices rising up accordingly. The wines themselves were richly structured, and through the season had seen early flowering, early colour change, some more perturbed weather in August, and an extended harvest. The reds were high in alcohol and initially highly marked by the generosity of the vintage but the terroir character has come through with ageing. Sauternes and Barsac also saw some excellent successes in this vintage. Merlot harvest began September 18th, Cabernet largely waited until early October.

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2010s

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2010
Outstanding quality, with wines combining high tannins, high acidity and high alcohol, promising exceptional ageing and more similar in style to 2005 than 2009, although with greater intensity. The Firsts will need at least 20 years development in bottle before approaching, and at this stage it is hard to choose between them. This year truly should compete for the title ‘vintage of the century’ – the wines are extremely complete and a little more consistent than the 2009. From July to September only 50mm of rain fell across the region, making it the dries summer of the decade, more so than 2005 during the same period. Merlot harvest began September 21st, Cabernets early October, so similar to 2009.

2011
A challenging year that required care in the vineyard, with some good quality wines that needed selection. Yields are low because ruthless selection was needed to ensure quality. The wines are generally fresh and aromatic, less concentrated than 2009 and 2010. Excellent for dry whites – wine of the vintage perhaps Haut-Brion Blanc. Sauternes and Barsac did extremely well in this year, with the noble rot spreading quickly and evenly, and just two rounds of harvesting needed to bring in the grapes, extremely unusual in these appellations (seen only in 2009 and 2011 in the past 50 years). Many reds were a little hard at first, but are softening now and showing floral characteristics and great classicism.

2012
Another challenging year that required care in the vineyard, with some potentially very good quality wines. A damp summer gave way to an excellent period of sustained hot weather in August and September, to the point that some young vines on hot or draining soils saw some blockages, but rains at the end of the month ensured continued ripening. Vines with deep roots or on limestone or clay soils resisted the heat of the summer the best. The first Merlots began harvest on September 25th, with the Cabernets two weeks later. More rain in October complicated the harvest and most grapes could have done with a little longer to reach full ripeness. Having said that, there are many wines with a good fruit structure and a rich gourmet feel, but they are unlikely to last as long as the 2011s.

2013
A difficult vintage on both banks, early drinking is needed to capture the fruit. Prime spots on limestone or good gravel soils managed to best withstand the harvest rains. Bordeaux red vintages are assessed according to five criteria by the institute of oenology and this vintage didn’t achieve any of them. White grapes, in contrast, managed some excellently expressive, aromatic and well structured wines in both dry and sweet versions. One bright spots for the reds perhaps was St Estèphe; it received just 25mm of rain from October 1st to 25th, three times less than other communes of the Médoc, and most of the rest of Bordeaux. Overall the Merlot harvest started on September 25th.

2014
More successful in the northern Médoc than elsewhere, but overall there are some good quality wines on both banks when the grapes were able to reach maturity. They were helped by outstanding weather in September and October after an extremely difficult early season. Major discrepancies across appellations, with 82mm of rain in August in Margaux 56mm in St Julien and 61mm in St Estèphe, and greater on the Right Bank overall than the Left. Merlot harvest started in the last week of September and continued until mid-October or later. The wines lack the depth of concentration of the best vintages, but there are many fine examples, with estates such as Montrose in St Estèphe particularly successful.

2015
Excellent quality across Bordeaux, with some particular successes on the Right Bank. A sunny and dry year where the Institute of Oenology opened its vintage report with the words, ‘we can’t hide our pleasure’. Good quality and quantity, with all five conditions for a good red vintage met. Unlike 2014, St Estèphe saw more rain than other parts of the Médoc with 118mm in September compared to their average of 35mm. Merlot harvest began in the third week of September, with the Cabernets coming in mid-October under excellent conditions.

2016
Heavy rains in the first part of the year, with 722.4mm falling across the region by the end of June, 62% higher than usual. It was followed by a beautifully warm dry finish, with only 13mm of rain over the following 80 days and 53% less rainfall than usual until the end of September. This meant long slow ripening, with natural richness and concentration. Sandy soils in some parts of the region suffered from water deficit and blockages, but clay and limestone held on well and the gravels next to the river in the Médoc, especially those underpinned by clays, made exceptional wines. Great acidities and tannins along with big fruits means this vintage should age for decades.

2017
The big story of 2017 was the frost at the end of April that reduced the crop but it was not the easiest vintage overall because rain in early September meant that some estates, particularly on sandy soils, had to pick before full ripeness was reached to avoid rot. There are some great wines but lighter framed, and plenty of unusual blends as châteaux reacted to the effects of the frost. Careful sorting was needed to mitigate the effects. Major successes for the dry whites.

2018
As with 2016, rain marked the early part of the year, followed by a long hot summer that saw many brilliant wines but alcohol levels climbing high. Variation across the region but some excellent wines. Indian summer saw red wine grapes with high sugars, great aromatics and reasonable acidities, with plenty of tannic structure. From my tastings, the Right Bank has performed marginally better in this vintage, with particular successes on the limestone plateau of Saint Emilion.

2019
Heat waves in June and July saw some blockages, with a cooler August and a mainly dry September, rain coming at the end of the month which caused some issues for Cabernet Sauvignon for those who picked too early, but the good weather returned and those that waited were helped by the rainfall to kickstart ripening again after the dry September. A good year with some exceptional wines, although uneven. The Left Bank has delivered many of the wines of the vintage, less lush but more structured than the 2018, with slightly higher acidity and greater ageing potential.

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2020s

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2020
A warm, early year impacted by a rainy start and finish but with a dry summer that had almost zero rainfall in July, and a water deficit across the summer months that came in at 60% lower than average. Rainfall in May and June was uneven – with up to 200mm in parts of the Médoc but just 40mm in Pomerol. The Mérignac weather station recorded just 9% more rainfall than average in September, with a final count of just over 90mm and with a little more rain falling in the Médoc than on the Right Bank. Pessac-Léognan remained relatively dry.

2021
This was a difficult growing season, and there is some inconsistency in the glass, undoubtedly the most complicated vintage since 2013 in Bordeaux (although far better in its results). There are some excellent white wines, and delicate tannic structure in the reds, favouring floral aromatics;