Bordeaux Vintages of the ‘80s:
1980: A good but not exciting year. The wines were light and clean, with decent fruit but lacked the structure needed to make great wine. Pleasant drinking for their first two decades, they did not evolve into greatness, and most were beginning to fade before the turn of the millennium.
1981: Another somewhat indifferent year, these wines had more structure but less fruit than the preceding. They had true flavours but were a bit thin and astringent in their youth. They were pleasant after a decade and pretty well finished after two, for all but the very top chateaux.
1982: A truly marvellous vintage! Everything came together perfectly, with fully ripe grapes yielding wines of massive fruit, perfect balance, and good structure, with an underlying foundation of soft tannins. They were so appealing in their youth that far too many were consumed within their first decade, and never had the chance to show the glory of which they were capable. Now approaching the end of their third decade, these wines are just reaching the peak of their glorious and complex mature perfection.
1983: A very good year, languishing somewhat in the shadow of its illustrious predecessor vintage. The ‘83s were more classic than the ‘82s, with good balance and firm structure, but lacking the massive fruit. They have matured steadily over the intervening decades, and all but the finest of them may now have passed their peak.
1984: Not a very good year. Lean, green and ungenerous, I have always found these wines hard, tart and not very enjoyable.
1985: A glorious vintage of very fine fruit-forward wines, so delicious in their youth that they were pretty well all drunk up in their first decade or so. Those of us who kept a few back have been rewarded with sweet delicacy and complex ripe raspberry flavours as the wines matured. Not sufficient weight and structure to qualify as great, but the better chateaux continue to hold well, with elegance and style.
1986: A classic vintage: firm structure, big fruit, perfect balance – these are great wines for the long haul. I have never had one that wasn’t enjoyable and rewarding as only great claret can be. These wines twenty-five years on are drinking well, most with lots of legs left to carry them to even greater heights for many years to come. My favourite vintage of the decade!
1987: A rather unfortunate year; not as bad as ’84 – thanks, perhaps to winemaking technology – but certainly a disappointment coming after two great vintages and before two more that followed. The wines lacked fruit and excitement, and that left little to give much enjoyment.
1988: A somewhat underrated vintage by many pundits, I have always found these wines to be good examples of classic claret: good balance, good structure, good fruit. They only lack the massive weight needed to be considered a truly great year. Now fully mature, they can be enjoyed over the next decade.
1989: And this was another very great year! The ‘89s typify what ‘balance’ really means. These wines are elegant and stylish. They have delicious – but not massive – sweet fruit, and firm – but not harsh – tannins in perfect balance. Right now they are the stars of the cellar, and they are ageing gracefully as they move into their third decade.
Read about other Bordeaux vintage years:
Bordeaux Vintages of the 60s
Bordeaux Vintages of the 70s
Bordeaux Vintages of the 90s