1965 Recs?

My brother is having a special birthday next year and figured I’d get a jump on it.

Any and all advice would be great - but not looking to mortgage the house or sell the kids to pay for this

Cheers!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Sadly, I’m a 1965 birthyear as well, worst viticultural year ever on this planet! I have a '65 Mouton that is likely swill, but I will pop it anyway for kicks and giggles.

Wow Larry - that is a real dead-end vintage. My recommendation would be to look for a vintage Armagnac.

No sleepers out there? Off vintage doesn’t mean no decent wines, does it?!?!?!?

Sometimes it does

Was he born before September? A conception year wine might be a better choice. Or do what I did for my 50th. Instead of 1960 I opened a 1959 and a 1961 and averaged.

Lots of good 1964s and 1966s.

1965 produced some decent Colheita Ports. Delaforce and Kopke would be my recommendations. You can get the 1965 Delaforce from here for $100: Wine Store - Sterling Cellars

If you HAVE to have wine Larry, Chateau Latour was notorious for making great wines in very bad vintages back then. I’ve only had the '65 Latour once, but it was a pretty nice wine and far from over the hill. You may still find it for $300 - $400 a bottle.

I am in the boat of a 1965er, not only not a good year for wines, just not any to be found out there. Chambers Street had a few, but I am still looking.

What a great idea.

One of the greatest wines ever produced in Australia was the 1965 Lindemans Hunter River Burgundy Bin 3110 (it’s actually a Shiraz).

'65 Unico is supposed to be quite decent.

Yep. Just tried it from magnum this past Saturday and it was lovely, but not worth the current tariff.

I’d look for Scotch or Armagnac, or maybe just get some flowers.

We have some friends who will celebrate their 50th next year. I bought some 1965 Barolo and Spanna to try with them, from Chambers St. My expectations are low but so were the prices.

Setubal. As one so afflicted I have done the research and that is the answer. Finding it is another story, but look at it this way, those born in 65 are free to drink anything else, and anything else is a better deal.

I’m a vintage 1965 myself, so am interested in this topic. The suggestions on the Unico and Latour are helpful. Though, I’ve not tried it out yet, I’m also keeping an eye out for magnums/double magnums (if any) of Gruaud Larose.

Re: a “conception” vintage, that was also suggested to me by La Rioja Alta’s wine director, Jesús Madrazo (who is also vintage 1965). He said we can claim 1964, which is a legendary Rioja vintage. A very good idea indeed.

Still and all, it would be nice to have even just decent birth year wines for next year.

Best,

N

find another year–and this comes from a 1956er–worst year of the century for wine.

Louis Martini

A dear friend of mine is also 1965.
Vega Sicilia is a really great wine, but hard to find (especially now) and not cheap.
(might also apply to other Spaniards … (?)

Clos des Papes is also excellent, and I guess also other CdPs … although I didn´t taste others.
The Bordeaux I had are to forget.

But German or Austrian Rieslings (Spätlese, Auslese or sweeter) can provide good drinking, although it was not nearly a great year.

PS: I had a really good Barolo 1965 once … can´t remember the producer, but much better than the vintages reputation.

1965 Bertani Amarone was actually good - although the only bottle I had was over 10 years ago.

I think the conception year wine idea is an excellent one.

I did a quick search on CT 1965 and sorted by score. Ports and related wines at the top of the list.

Looks like the La Tache scores highly for those some inclined.