A good bottle of 1965 Grange should be spectacular. Not cheap, bit probably one of your best bets.
He did mention that he didn’t want to mortgage the house…
+1 on 65 Latour. I’ve had it twice and preferred it to 61 & 62. But I’m a pinot guy.
Taylor vintage port (or a similar producer) - should be less than $350.
As a gag (no pun intended) gift, I have an orphaned bottle of 1965 Plume Ridge Cellars Cream Sherry (free if you pay shipping). Just email me a pre-printed shipping label and it will be on the way. Give him this first, then give him something drinkable.
'65 was not a declared vintage in Port - but you may find some late bottled offerings. I’ve never seen one, but a few have mentioned that they have.
I’m a 65er too. I like Jay’s idea of '64/'66 bookends.
Tried the 65 Barolo idea once w Gaja. Didn’t work. Awful and over. Could have been the bottle, but I’ve yet to have a decent bottle from my birth year.
Larry, my birth year, unfortunately it does ![[truce.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/d33e712b50d5efc2425bf219c404fbdb7ed0ba50.gif "truce"){kind=small}
I just bought some 1965 Barros Colheita for th email store. It’s delicious!
'65 Chevelle SS factory 327 4-speed.
Seems like a better choice than wine from all the negative above.
+1 I think Colheita Port is the way to go for 1965.
I was born in 57 and came up with the idea of milestone vintages…
63 Port to commerate starting school
70 Bordeaux to commemorate bar mitzvah
75 Bordeaux to commemorate high school graduation
78 for college graduation
82 for medical school graduation
You get the idea.
From a Rare Wine Company email received today:
When it comes to finding birth year and anniversary wines, there are years that are easy (1982, 1970 and 1961) and years that are hard (1956, 1941, 1939).
But within the past half century, no year is more challenging than 1965. And that is a reality that everyone turning 50—or celebrating a 50th anniversary—this year must face.
'Sixty Five was bleak worldwide. Bordeaux was a disaster, as was virtually every other region of Europe. Even California produced nothing memorable. 'Sixty Five was as uniformly poor as 1990 was uniformly excellent.
And to make matters worse, prices for mediocrities have been jacked up in preparation for the vintage’s 50th anniversary.
The Pot of Gold
But there is one outstanding 1965 I stumbled on last Wednesday, while on a three-day trip to Spain.
The wine is Toro Albalá’s 1965 Seleccion, and this was my first chance to taste it. The opportunity arose during a visit to Toro Albalá’s cellars in Montilla, just fifty miles north of Spain’s southern coast.
Founded in 1844 and famed for its profoundly sweet and complex wines made from dried Pedro Ximénez grapes, the Toro Albalá name has been on fire lately, thanks to a series of strong reviews from Luis Gutiérrez in The Wine Advocate. One of the wines that has excited Gutierrez most is the 1965, to which he gave 97 points last month.
Arriving in March, $265/btl.
No affiliation, yada yada, except as a longtime satisfied customer.
Released on January 1, 1965
Thanks, but perhaps you can tell me why my phone autocorrects “the” to “th email?” Hahah
Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve had plenty of fantastic '65s.
Start with CA.
'65 Hanzell Pinot remains one of the best bottles of any wine I’ve ever had.
And if you can find it, School House was just killer.
BV GdL is still going strong, as is C Krug. '65 was actually Peter Mondavi’s favorite vintage.
Louis Martini cab is fantastic, Martin Ray pinot still delicious, Inglenook is a little more hit-or-miss, but can be delicious.
If you’re not a domestic fan, '65 Latour can be a lovely wine, but ONLY if it was stored perfectly.
Same with Montrose; surprisingly good.
I’ve actually even had a few really enjoyable bottles of Suduiraut.
You have to look hard, but they’re out there, and usually not wallet-busters;)
1965 Barolos from the old school producers like B. Mascarello, Cappellano, and Beppe Rinaldi can be good, but certainly a crap shoot at this age.
B21 just got in the 1965, 1955 and 1929. I bought the '46 last year but have not popped it. Just pulled the trigger on the '65, which is my birthyear. B21’s price is much lower, on sale now through
$219 per its emailer of today, good through 2/16.
I sourced this bottle from a seller on WS, turned out to be a local pawn shop and took a flier for $50. Being my 50th, it was the best time to open. The wine is still alive and needs some air, will see how it goes through the night.