1961

Which wines from the ‘61 vintage do you think are the best candidates to have life remaining?
newhere

Next year…

la chapelle

Latour

I would say, at this point, theres significantly more risk in provenance with a wine that old than catching a particular wine that may still have fruit left. Ive had some great village level burgs from '61 from pristine provenance that certainly defy any expectation about them. Also had my share of duds. If provenance had no relevance with wine, Id say it was a great year in Champagne, Rhone, and some communes in Bordeaux. Rioja too, probably.

If you include fortified wines, many will have probably not even reached their peak yet.

Colares reds up to the 1930s are still drinking splendidly. We have a forum user who did a vertical of them and pointed out that the 1930s didn’t feel older than the 1970s.

Lots of candidates in Bordeaux and Piedmont if well stored. Palmer is legendary (and one of my top Bdx of all time), but so is pricing. Pichon Lalande is really good, and for less pricey Beychevelle and Lascombes have showed well recently.

G. Mascarello Barolo 1961, have enjoyed many fine bottles of this

I have a 1961 Ducru I’m excited to drink soon.

‘61 Unico should be still alive and kicking but ultimate would be a La Chapelle or Latour.

Lol, some of these suggestions make me think maybe you should have specified a price point Scott.

I’d be wary of Champagne that old unless it had rock solid provenance, which is pretty hard to come by.

If you can find one, Batailley was excellent a few years ago and not too expensive.

Well stored Lynch Bages is superb

++1

I am vintage '59 and my wife is '61. Lots of great Bx, if you can find/afford it.

Yup

Hahah re La Chapelle. Sell the house to buy that one.

Dom Perignon, Krug Collection and Taittinger Comtes

Not one mention for Burgundy? A great vintage for sure - I’ve had village wines over the last few years that were still remarkable -

Scott - pricing is very important consideration. Check out the current WS pricing on 1961 Latour to give you some perspective. If this is in your price range then fine. But personally I would worry a lot about fakes with 61 Latour or 61 La Chapelle. As others have said, provenance matters a lot too

I have had perhaps 10-15 wines from 1961 in total. Good success with Red Bordeaux, Red Burg, Barolo and Sauternes. 1961 Red Bordeaux is justifiably famous as one of the greatest vintages ever. Even lesser wines can be really good. Ch Beycheville, Batailley have both been excellent. I had 1961 Latour once and it was truly amazing. Red Burgs can be good but it was not the great vintage like it was in Bdx. The 1961 red burgs I had were at Berns so that it not really that helpful for you…

Has some lovely 1961 Vallana Spannas that were not that expensive, older Barolo from Borgogno can be wonderful too. Barolo seems to a bit of a provenance minefield for older bottles so I would be very careful.

Lopez de Heredia Riojas are another good option that should be better priced than Bdx. Also these wines have often been at the winery for most of their lives so provenance is less of a concern here

The best deal out there IMO is Sauternes. I have had a couple of 1961 Sauternes including Ch Coutet. Not a great Sautenes vintage but the wines are still delicious and interesting. Also Sauternes is a much more robust wine and good bottles have great longevity.

Vintage Port is another option for you

good luck and shop early before 2021 is actually here.

Brodie

It probably won’t be Chapelle or Latour but I’m willing to spend some bucks.
I already have some Piemonte; I’ve had lots of success with those in 61 vintage.
Re Batailley, I’ve had lots of luck with old vintages and they are priced stupid cheap.
Re Burgundy (great vintage), for my 50th I bought a 61 Gevrey Village on a visit to Trapet—it was spectacular. I was willing to go larger but they really wanted me to try it. I’m not sure we’ll get back to Burgundy before the big day (Dec of 2021) but we’ll see.
Thanks for suggestions and keep ‘em coming. I’m not sure how many times I’ll turn 60. [berserker.gif] [berserker.gif]