2020 Vision: This Year’s Anniversary Wines

It is always a surprise to notice that you are coming to the end of a year – and of a decade – even if, as a fine wine merchant, you are expected to keep an eye on years (or vintages) that come and go.

If, like me, you are an English cricket fan, then 2019 was a very good year: the England cricket team won its first World Cup in 44 years of trying. Otherwise, the past year – and probably the past decade – will not be missed. 

For the wine sector, the 25-percent tariffs imposed in October on French, Spanish, and German wines imported into the US more or less stopped fine wine imports there and then. It’s helped to stimulate the secondary market but, on the whole, it’s bad for the sector.

In the light of such a challenging year, there’s never been a better time to enjoy anniversary wines with friends, family, and colleagues. Let’s look to 2020 with optimism that things can only get better – and see if the 2020 Earth depicted in Gerry Anderson’s puppet-laden ’80s sci-fi TV series Terrahawks matches the real thing (no sign of Zeroid robots yet…).

Holding on, 10 years gone

A decade on, the 2010 Bordeaux vintage is acclaimed as a modern classic. Released at the peak of the market in June 2011, prices for Bordeaux 2010 went into freefall over the next four years and have never recovered. Lafite was released at £1000 per bottle. Today it can be found for £600 per bottle.

For 18-year-olds celebrating their first legal glass of wine, 2002 Bordeaux just about passes muster. The consensus is that these are underpowered wines and not of interest – Robert Parker didn’t even bother to taste the wines in barrel, which led to negligible interest for this vintage in the US, even though they were priced (correctly) well below the 2001 and 2000 vintages. There has been some upturn over the last four or five years, though, which shows – like 2010 – that it’s not always prudent to throw money at the supposedly better vintages.

Much better stuff is to be found from Champagne, which excelled in 2002, and Burgundy, which had a fine year.  

Millennium falcons

The Millennium vintage was a great start to the 21st Century for Bordeaux, with white Burgundy and the Rhône also making exceptional wines.

I was fortunate to do a comprehensive tasting in 2010 of 48 wines of the 2000 Bordeaux vintage. At that time a bottle each of these wines totalled more than £16,000. The budget did not stretch to a butler to serve drinks, so it was self-service and the guests could taste in their own time. This meant that some people (me) had two glasses of Pétrus to ensure a proper assessment. Probably a lot of the wines were not spat, either. The consensus put Latour as the First Growth among equals, followed by Haut-Brion, Lafite, Cheval Blanc, and Petrus. For me, Petrus was the Millennium Falcon.

Other 2000 wines tasted on my travels included an unctuous Klein Constantia Vin de Constance, made even more enjoyable by being paired with Michel Roux’s spice–crusted foie gras with onion marmalade at two-Michelin-starred Le Gavroche in London; a lush Château Haut-Bailly, and a reductive but opulently flavored Dom Pérignon sampled in the company of DP’s chef de cave Richard Geoffroy.

Party like it’s 1999

For 21st anniversaries, the best choice is probably the richly flavored red Burgundy made in 1999. When the wines were offered en primeur, I purchased a case of Domaine Chandon de Briailles Pernand-Vergelesses Premier Cru Ile des Vergelesses (a daunting name for most of our monoglot clients), which winemaker Claude de Nicolay said was the best she’d ever done from this vineyard. All long since gone, alas.

It was a good Burgundy vintage for white wines too but the dreaded “premox”” – premature oxidation – makes sourcing (and serving) these wines a risk.

It was a better Bordeaux vintage than might be thought , given the thunderstorm that dropped hail all over the region. Lafite 1999’s aggregate Wine-Searcher score is 92, which makes it as good as the 1961 at nearly a third of the price.

Château Margaux 1999 was “undervalued”, believed the late Paul Pontallier, because of the great 2000 that followed. Tasted with him at an event in London a few years ago, the 1999 “is what Château Margaux stands for – balance, delicacy, softness and strength”, said Pontallier. Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux 1999 was deliciously sweet and juicy.  

A minty and peppery Château Angélus ’99 was tasted with the estate’s Président du Directoire Jean-Bernard Grenié, who spoke of the hailstorm that hit Saint-Émilion on September 5, 1999 – at 8pm, to be exact – and left 5cm of hailstones on the ground. Ausone, which is just 600 metres from Angélus, was completely unaffected – as good an argument for the climatic aspect of terroir as you will find.

Some excellent Champagne was made in 1999. Cristal ’99 was Jean–Baptiste Lecaillon’s first vintage in charge. Both 1996 and 1999 were ripe vintages and no chaptalization was necessary. “The difference between them,” explained Lecaillon at a tasting in London some time ago, “is the acidity. 1999 is very low in acidity… [It’s] very soft, gentle and round.”

As an envoi to the 1999 vintage, the Szepsy Tokaji Esszencia rounds it off nicely. At only 2 percent alcohol, strictly speaking this is not wine at all, merely slightly alcoholic grape juice. With 500 grams per liter of residual sugar – that is, 50 percent of the wine is pure sugar – it was painfully sweet but not at all cloying: The 16g/l of acidity compares to less than 1g/ltr for a white Burgundy. Astonishing stuff.

© iDealwine
| The 1995 vintage is also offering rewarding drinking now.

Silver and gold

Bordeaux ’95 was the best year since 1990 and compares very favorably to that year vis-à-vis current value for 25th celebrations. Mr Parker of Maryland scored 1990 Lafite at 96 and the 1995 at 95. Current retail prices per bottle are £500-plus for the 1995 and £600-plus for the 1990, equating to a price differential of 20 percent for a one-point score difference.

Out and about in London, I noted 1995 Château Haut-Brion as a nice drink; a dense, velvety Château Margaux distinguished by its relatively high Merlot content; and – continuing the Merlot theme of the vintage – a full and generous Angélus, which contrasted to the more austere style of this Saint-Émilion estate in the 1980s and early 1990s. 

Of my notes on ’95 Champagnes, the best are for a peachy magnum of Moët et Chandon; a rich and concentrated Jacquesson Grand Vin Signature that might still be going strong; a wrinkle-free Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires that had spent 10 years on its lees; and Krug Clos du Mesnil that impressed with its depth of flavor, complexity, and length.

Thirty Years’ War

Good news for wannabe United States Senators, who must be at least 30 years of age – just about every major European wine region made great wine in 1990.

As Véronique Sanders of Château Haut-Bailly said: “We never expected 1990 would have even better weather than 1989 but it did!” The 1990 Haut-Bailly was lush and decadent when last tasted. Also from Bordeaux, Angélus 1990 was the most glorious of “les trois glorieuses” – the three consecutive great vintages of 1988, 1989, and 1990 – and the year that L’Angélus became Angélus.

The brown patina of 1990 Château Cheval Blanc when last encountered was rather alarming, as were the aromas of figs, which are sometimes indicative of a wine that has reached its peak and might slide into decrepitude. However, there was enough spicy cedarwood to allay those fears, though gamey and truffle notes were also evident. The 1989 Cheval Blanc is better value, I think.

I have few notes on Burgundies of the 1990 vintage, though Domaine Faiveley’s Corton Clos des Cortons was finely structured on the palate, with silky tannins and crisply refreshing acidity. 

Paul Jaboulet Aîné’s Hermitage La Chapelle 1990 was very impressive in a La Chapelle line-up that went back to the 1960s, overwhelming wines from lesser years either side of it.

Champagnes enjoyed from 1990 include an immaculate magnum of Moët et Chandon, of which Moët’s chef de caves Benoît Gouez said: “Everything is in the right place.” I agreed. Pommery Cuvée Louise 1990 tasted from magnum had lovely, glowing length.

Some Penfolds wines from 1990 have also been enjoyed. The Bin 90A Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon-Barossa Valley Shiraz was an old-vine Aussie larrikin and Bin 920 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz a good example of Coonawarra leanness.

Life begins at 40… and 50

The 1980s had a poor start to the decade, though Vintage Port and California are worth a go. Hermitage La Chapelle 1980 was dry and tannic and not very likeable.

Those turning 50 can enjoy very good clarets from the 1970 vintage. In November 2019, a bottle of the Fifth Growth Château Lynch-Moussas 1970 that I drank with friends turned out be a pleasant surprise. It came from a private cellar in London, having been given to the owner as a birthday present 40 years ago. The bottle was generally in good condition for its age. The cork was intact but had to be pushed into the bottle to prevent damage. This suggested overly warm and dry storage over the last 40 years. Despite this, the wine was in excellent condition: Not excessively oxidative and a nice example of a mature, cedary claret. It proved that a wine from a moderate vintage and (as Lynch-Moussas was in 1970) a period when the estate was semi-dilapidated – and with a far from perfect cork – can be a thoroughly enjoyable fine wine experience.

Elsewhere, 50th anniversary fine wine fun might be had with 1970 Sauternes; Biondi-Santi’s Brunello di Montalcino; the very highly-regarded Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino Riserva; Chateau Musar; Vintage Port; Champagne; and California.

The last word

The Victorian author Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) was an enthusiast of 1820 Port, which is referred to in several of his novels. This great Port vintage came at a time when not all Port wines were fortified. Taylor’s Port claims that 1820 “produced Ports so magnificent that subsequent vintages could not approach their richness and power unless they were fortified. In any event, fortification had become widespread by the 1840s and by 1850 was probably universal.” No wonder then that Trollope was so intoxicated (in every sense) by 1820 Ports, made only five years after he was born and – as implied in his novels – still wonderful wines in the 1860s.

In a Proustian scene of reminiscence in The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867), Archdeacon Theophilus Grantly shares his last bottle of 1820 Port with Septimus Harding: “‘There’s one glass more, and you shall have it, sir.’ Then Mr. Harding drank the last glass of the 1820 Port, and they went into the drawing-room… That evening after dinner, there was no 1820 Port, and no recollections of old days.”

Later in the novel, Dobbs Broughton is introduced as a flashy parvenu who is hoovering up top vintages of Bordeaux: “‘Old Ramsby, who keeps as good a stock of stuff as any wine-merchant in London, gave me a hint, three or four years ago, that he’d a lot of tidy Bordeaux. It’s ’47, you know. He had 90 dozen, and I took it all.'” Broughton’s 1080 cases of 1847 (a great Bordeaux vintage for red and white wines, with Yquem an enduring legend) contrasts to Archdeacon Grantly’s last bottle of 1820 Port: Younger, newer money against older and declining wealth during a period of social change.

Another example of Trollope’s great knowledge of wine – and of how the world works, then and now – is in his 1865 novel The Belton Estate: “Wine is valued by its price, not its flavor.”

A century and a half later and nothing has changed.