Hyped Vintages that Disappointed

Given all of the discussion around the 2019 Germany vintage, wanted to hear from the more experienced collectors on the board on vintages in Old World regions that were hyped before/at release but didn’t hold up to the hype after 10-20+ years and why that was.

For a few:

California 1997
Bordeaux 1995, 2003 and for me 2009 and 2010
Burgundy 1983, 1990, 1995, 1997
Germany - what are the hyped vintages? The only ones I think of as really being hyped are 1971, 1975, 1976, 1990, 2001 and 2015. All of these are fabulous vintages, at least in the case of some pradikats (see 1976). Is 1989 as good as the hype, really depends on what regions you are talking about (some great wines from the Saar, Ruwer and Nahe) and how much you think it was hyped. The only really hyped vintage I can think of that is not as up to the hype is 1983 and there are some great wines in that vintage like from Prum and Grunhaus.

This is not true for all of the vintages named, but the IMHO the most common eventual flaw in the vintages above are very hot and not enough acidity.

Howard Cooper wrote:
Bordeaux 1995, 2003 and for me 2009 and 2010

Agree on 1995 and 2003, with a few exceptions. Not sure about 2009 yet for Bordeaux but I love the 2010 vintage, at least in the Left Bank.

Ed

I readily admit 2001 in Germany is a great vintage. However over the past past 10-15 years I have been disappointed so many times. Every vertical tasting where the 01s unperformed it is always said they just need time. This has happened at least 50x.

California reds, 1997.

Maybe because the 01’s need more time? :wink:

In fact do not totally disagree, didn’t have many but sold most of my 2001’s

who hyped 95 and 97 red burgs? Rovani doesn’t count!

Why doesn’t he count? The question was not what were great vintages but rather what were hyped vintages?

too easy. He was always wrong. Panned 93. Wasn’t big on any vintages the rest of us like.

What about 2000 Piedmont? At least it was hyped by Spectator and I thought Parker loved it, too. I’d rather have '99 or '01 by just about any producer.

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2020

2003 Rhones. I can’t think of any other combination of vintage hype for a specific region when the wines turned out soooo terrible.

1997 Brunello
2007 CdP

Bought, tasted then sold all of the former.

Drank all the latter, en magnum, accompanied by a nice piece of white fish. Delicious.

1983 Bordeaux, when I started out in this game it was reckoned to be pretty good, but Mouton, Ducru and Canon were all underwhelming. Cantemerle didn’t disappoint though.

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Definitely 2000 Piedmont.
2003 anything, if any region was hyped. Did anyone really believe in these wines?
2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 CNdP.
1985 Napa. (edit-I didn’t notice the Old World reference)
1975 Bordeaux.

Couldn’t disagree more, they have held up well in my experiences.

1971 in Germany was perfect. 75 and 76 were heralded for various reasons but they did not match up. Perhaps unfair. Hard to follow a great act.

74 in California was announced as great before the grapes were picked. 75 was ignored. In retrospect 75 produced some great wines and 74 some duds, as well as some great wines. I think some of the 74s lacked acidity.

71 in Burgundy was great in barrel, or so I am told, but I haven t been crazy about it in bottle. 72 turned out much better than expected.

82 in Burgundy…people were so excited but maybe the vines were overcropped. I just remember the shirtsleeve weather in November.

75 in Bordeaux…I think they were desperate so they said it was great. It was tannic.

96 white Burgs??

1997 Piedmont
1993 Burgundy

2003 Bordeaux
2007 Southern Rhone: in particular Chateauneuf du Pape, which in so many cases were just a porty, soupy mess