1973 Chateau Latour
1994 Leoville Barton
2011 Vieux Chateau Certan
All outstanding. Had that Latour last year.
A great QPR is 1983 Cantemerle.
Oh no.
This is an ongoing debate here. I’m a 79, so have had a few and I think it’s a decent but not great vintage, while other people think it’s better than that, so views vary.
Personally, my vote is for the 1992 Bonneau Cuvee Celestins. I don’t even like Grenache very much, but that’s a magical bottle of wine.
Too many shitty 2007 Oregon Pinot Noirs to mention…
The 87 & 92 were examples I was going to use. Not ‘great’, but better than any others (for the vintage) and quite graceful.
I love the 2010. Maybe the vintage wasn’t bad, but it’s certainly not thought to be great. I haven’t tasted many yet myself. It’s definitely a pattern for Vilmart, though. I thought the 2007 (again, not a bad vintage, but not great) was incredible, and the 2001 (truly a bad vintage), which I had several times, is one of the best Champagnes I’ve ever had.
Quite a few 1998 Napa Cabs have turned out very well, but maybe the problem was the critics not understanding the vintage when it was released and a lot of people believing them, rather than it actually not being a good vintage.
2003s from Willi Schaefer and some other producers in the Mosel. Like the '98 Napa Cabs, these have taken some time to come around, but the Schaefer Spatlesen in particular are great wines, not just in the context of the vintage.
03 and 80 DRC’s
Jamet Cote Rotie 1993.
Allemand Cornas Chaillot 1993.
Jay Hack wrote:
1998 Araujo!!!
Good call there. I would also add the 1998 Shafer Hillside Select. Every bottle that we have had has been outstanding.
Ed
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Couple candidates to add to Ryan’s list:
1999 Dunn Howell Mountain
2006 Dujac grand crus
2013 VCC (hard to find, as production was cut by 75 percent, but it is amazingly good for the vintage)
2011 Lafleur
2002 Latour
2004 Angelus
1981 Pichon Lalande
2013 FX Pichler (this vintage gets a variety of ratings from Austria critics, but the wines from Pichler are incredible)
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2003 scared me as a vintage and so I only bought wine from Truchot in the vintage. I have thus not tasted widely from the vintage. Looking at your post, I wonder if we are both wrong about 2003 being a mediocre vintage. It would be interesting to taste more 2003s.
And, I agree on DRC in 1980. I bought the 1980 Grands Echezeaux when it was first released for $35 and it was fabulous.
'81 Krug Collection
'92 Krug Clos du Mesnil
'86 Roumier Bonnes Mares
'94 Leroy’s (numerous wines)
'52 Cantemerle
'74 Cristal
The Cristal I haven’t had in 10+ years, so it may be tired now.
Pichon Lalande 1994, still on an upward arc.
Majority of 2000 red burgs I have had the pleasure of sampling.
Are folks distinguishing here between merely good and truly mediocre vintages? And are they viewing the vintage through the past historical lens or right now? For example, I wouldn’t put 2000 red Burgundy in the mediocre camp even if they were thought of that way in the past. 2000 red Burg is much better than mediocre and that’s been known for a number of years now. Similarly a number of 1994 Bordeaux I’ve had over the last couple years has me rethinking whether there are a number of good wines in a mediocre vintage or just a vintage that took a lot of time and should now be understood as a good vintage, albeit with characteristics that not all enjoy.
Anyway, I’ll throw my cap in with the 1981 La Tache a number of us shared in 2018. That was a ridiculously good bottle of wine.
Fourriers 2011s
1998 Abreu Madrona Ranch
Selosse and Bouchard in “off vintages”
Pegau 2013
As I go deeper down the rabbit hole, I’m getting closer to producer preference over vintage almost every time.
Good to see the Ridge and VCC 2011s on people’s lists, may need to check in on those.
I will second Craig on this one. Was served the wine blind last year and I guessed it as cooked Astralis. The only wine that didn’t get finished at the tasting. Interestingly, I had it on release and, at the time (note that my tastes have shifted) it was a stunning bottle with amazing aromatics. But time has not been its friend.
I agree about 2000 Burgundy (both red and white) but your 1981 la Tache certainly qualifies as coming from a mediocre vintage.
I really was thinking about what is a mediocre vintage even in the context of the 2011 Ridge Monte Bello I mentioned. Probably a mediocre vintage in Napa (let us give it a few more years first) but is it in the Santa Cruz Mountains?
LLC belongs on this list. About 10 years ago, K&L was selling mixed cases of LLC from a string of poor vintages 1983, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1999. The '99 is still not ready, but all of the others were just lovely.
My Eureka wine was a 1979, the Giscours, so I am a little biased. Tasted a few months ago, it is still vibrant and wonderful.
But overall it is a solid vintage, although for the most part, it is beginning to fade. The exceptions were the two appellations I mentioned, Pomerol and Margaux, and a few individual chateaux, such as Montrose and Haut Brion.
Don’t know about other vintages listed but I finished 4 cases of ‘93 LLC and loved that wine. My boss and I split 10 cases of that, bought them for a song in a secondary market offers.