64' Vintage

[winecollector]

Anyone familiar with how good or bad the 64' vintage was for Bordeaux? None of my vintage charts go back that far. Thanks.

[Innkeeper]

Only thing I know for sure is that the '65 was horrible. Possibly the worst in the century. Was there. They called that summer the "Green Winter." All the seaside resorts closed down. We barbequed on the balcony on the Fourth of July with two sweaters on. The vintage all over France and most of the rest of the continent was a disaster. Nothing ripened.

The thing I know next best is '63. That was pretty bad too. It was the year we got married, which I hasten to add was good. However, when we looked for an anniversary wine a few years later, the only thing anyone could recommend was Latour. We picked up a couple, and held them plenty long, but they were nothing to write home about.

The thing I do remember about '64 is that it was abundent. We drank it practically the whole time we were in Europe ('64-'68) and to our then (and I guess now to some extent) unsophisticated palates, the wines were great; particularly the St Emilions.

[cpurvis]

IK, the anniversary wine could have been a '63 port! cp

[hotwine]

IK, you have a great memory! I recall the '64s as being excellent, although I wouldn't care to even try to name any labels. My old ('91) copy of Broadbent gives the '64s two to four stars, out of five possible. He singled out for four stars the Latour (5 stars (sic)), Haut-Brion, Cheval-Blanc (also 5 stars), Petrus, Beychevelle, Canon, Dom de Chevalier, Figeac and, La Mission Haut-Brion. (He introduced the '64s with a general rating of two to four stars, then proceded to give some of them five stars.) He gave ratings on 32 wines and notes on an additional 19, in fine print covering a bit more than two pages.
If you have a question on a particular wine, I'll be glad to see if it's listed.

[This message has been edited by hotwine (edited 08-13-2001).]

[wondersofwine]

Not very relevant to your question, but I think '64 was an outstanding vintage in Germany.

[winoweenie]

Heidy-Ho there ole' WC. 64 was originally touted as being a good to very good vintage. I purchased a few 1st growths ( Lafite, Latour, Mouton, and Haut Brion), and in late 78-79 found them all to be hard, not too interesting and felt there was no future so I dumped them. The few I've had since then confirmed in my mind that I did the rite thing. Same thing with the 76s'. WW

[winecollector]

Thanks all for your responses. I ended up passing on what I was looking at- two bottles of 64' Mouton Rothschild. It was at auction, and it started to get too pricey for what I figured it to be worth. And besides, by the time I would of poured us all a glass, none of it would have ever made it to the cellar!