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Bordeaux 1995

Any Bordeaux vintage of the 1990s has to be taken in the context of the great successes and failures of the decade; as far as the former goes, which vintage we turn to depends on how you wish to define the boundaries of the decade, and whether it begins in 1990 or ends in 2000. Whichever you choose, however, you have a great vintage on your hands, where all of the region's appellations enjoyed broad success. As for the failures, the sad trio of 1991, 1992 and 1993 (accepting that there are always exceptions to the rule - I have tasted a handful of good wines made in 1993, for instance) are the vintages we should look to. After this trio came 1994, a vintage of relief for the vignerons and proprietors where decent wines could at least be made. It is a vintage that today divides opinion, some enjoying the tannic structure of the wines, some wishing they just had a little more flesh on their bones.

And then came 1995, a fine vintage in which many great wines were made. Some very established critics today prefer the vintage to 1996, although I don't share that opinion. Nevertheless this is certainly a vintage littered with wines of quality, and its reputation rests largely on those wines that originate from the right bank appellations of St Emilion and Pomerol. But it is by no means a failure on the left bank, and as my associated tasting notes show, there are in fact many delicious wines from the classic appellations of the Médoc. They don't match the purity and fine expression of typicité that the wines of the subsequent vintage show, and it is for this reason I prefer the wines of 1996.

But perhaps there is broader appeal in 1995? After all, if we consider 1995 as a 'right-bank vintage' in which there were also very good wines made on the left bank, suddenly 1996 does not do so well in comparison. The wines from the Médoc appellations of St Estèphe, St Julien, Pauillac and Margaux in 1996 are, without any doubt in my mind, superior to anything else produced between 1991 and 1999, but the wines originating from the right bank communes of St Emilion and Pomerol this year are much less successful. Certainly, those that I have tasted seem to me to have displayed the weakness of the vintage in these appellations.

Returning to 1995 though, there are certainly good wines in the vintage, and being a vintage relatively free of excessive hyperbole they have for many years offered good value. With that in mind, they are certainly wines I have added to the cellar over the years, and the associated tasting notes reflect this. These can be viewed via the links at the top of the page. Below, I provide some information on the vintage itself.

Vintage Review

The year began with a mild winter which brought an adequate amount of rain, and there followed a relatively unremarkable spring in which flowering progressed smoothly and was all finished by May. The summer was extremely warm, the warmest for 20 years, so not quite record-breaking but close to it. The sun beat down throughout June, July and August, the temperature frequently exceeding 30°C and the fruit began to change colour somewhat earlier than usual, a response to the warmth of the vintage. But Bordeaux history is littered with stories of warm summers and high hopes, only for these dreams and expectations to be dashed - or at least curtailed.

Picking began on September 11th, following which there was heavy rain which then faded into light September showers, thankfully insufficient to truly threaten the vintage. There was a risk perhaps that the Bordelais would panic, memories of the deluges that marked the early vintages of this decade no doubt fresh in their mind. But the sensible option was of course to wait, and this is exactly what the quality-conscious did, only beginning to harvest again once the rains had finished. After September 20th the weather improved significantly, the sky clearing and the temperatures rising once more, and much of the fruit was harvested in very good conditions. There was still a need for selection, whether it be when picking or after fermentation in the cellars, in order to maximise quality and potential, but I think that is true in almost very vintage to some extent.

So the end result was a good vintage, but not a great one despite early hopes, and it was of course the rain that brought the vintage down from the very highest level. Many years on, writing of the acclaimed 2005 vintage in his annual review of the season and its wines, Bill Blatch commented that this highly successful year was "what 1995 would have been if it hadn’t rained’ at the last minute". Such a comment clearly smacks of dashed hopes; nevertheless the wines certainly have their admirers. Very soon after the wines were released in bottle, Robert Parker wrote in Bordeaux: A Comprehensive Guide (Dorling Kindersley, Third Edition, 1998) that "the finest 1995 Bordeaux are classic vin de garde wines with considerable tannin and, while accessible, require bottle age". His anticipation was that the wines would not be close to full maturity until 2003-2005, a too-early date in my own opinion. Those 1995s that I came across at around that time still seemed very fuzzy and poorly composed, clearly in need of yet more cellar time. And the first pull of a reasonable number of bottles from my cellar, in early 2010, showed that for my palate the wines were just beginning to drink well.

There are other contrasting opinions on the vintage of course. Writing in Vintage Wine (Little, Brown, First Edition, 2002), Michael Broadbent suggests a rather longer drinking window, with many of his predictions extending out to 2015, with the first growths out to 2020, 2025 or even "2030 or beyond" in the case of Latour. I can make no comment on the first growths, but for the wines I have tasted I think even 2015 is somewhat conservative, as I cannot imagine them falling off their respective perches only five years from publishing my first look at the wines in early maturity. Time will tell as always, but I feel no urgency to be pulling these bottles from the cellar just yet. (2/3/10)