Were 1985 and 1987 good years ?

[BarryWade]

I've got a friend who was wanting to find out if 1985 and 1987 were good vintage years for anything. I was telling her that I had purchased cases the years my daughters were born and had planed to rack it and open them for special occassions..e.g. graduations, weddings etc and she thought this sparked her interest. If anyone has any insight I would appreciate it.

Thank you in advance,
Barry

[Innkeeper]

Hi Barry, and welcome to the Wine Board. You can "google" wine vintages, and find several excellent vintage charts. Not sure if you mean the wines have already been bought, or need to be bought. Both are problematical. If they are already in a cellar, the conditions need to be perfect for a minute number of wines to survive. All others are over the hill. If the wines need to be bought, it will be nearly impossible, except at huge expense at auction, and I wouldn't bid if I had a million in my pocket.

This whole subject is frought with danger. As already alluded to, it is very difficult to select and properly keep wines for twenty years. If you are successful in all that, the next hurdle is having kids that like wine. Many people have run afoul of this glitch. What are you going to do; say, "Here's to you kid?" I think it's a much better idea to invest in a child's education, than in wine to toast their maturity or success. You can also educate them to love wine.

[Kcwhippet]

Nice reply. But, IK, I don't think I've seen the word "frought" used in quite a while. I daresay not many of the younger generation (and you know who you are) have ever heard it.

[winoweenie]

Hi BW and welcome to the board. IK made lots of valid points, but I disagree on several key points. The vintages asked about are 15 and 17 years old. There were many fine Calif Cabs in those two years that with proper storage should still be at their prime. If you are talking about going on the market today and buying them, I too say forget it. I have had several 87s' from my cellar in the last few months that I thought were great. The key is provenence. A dark closet wont cut it. WW