70's Cal Cabs vs 70's Bordeaux

A couple weeks ago I had a bottle of the 74 Mayacamas and I thought it was one of the best wines I had all year…along with the 70 Mayacamas from a mag. Having said that, I’m a bordeaux guy and I’ve had all the great one’s but I’ve yet to have any great bordeaux from the 70’s.

Was it just a bad/mediocre decade in Bordeaux? And why are the 70 and 74 Cal wines still singing and bordeaux is not?

thanks

I’ve not had, to my immediate recollection, '70 or '74 Bdx. But I’ve had many from the '70s. Some I’ve had recently were '75, '78 and '79 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande (I like '79 more than ‘78’, '75 is surprisingly youthful; some were ex-château) and '71 Pétrus (still drinking youthfully). Last I had a '78 Haut Brion was around 5 years ago and it was still in fine shape at the time.

Unfortunately, all the '78 Lafite Rothschilds I’ve opened since 2003 were quite tired. Prior to that, they were excellent. Maybe those were just my bottles…

N

I think 1970 was the strongest vintage of the 70s with 78 right behind it, at least with all the wines I have sampled in the 80s and early 90s. Bordeaux certainly has a higher fail rate of 70s era vintages: 72, 73, 77!, and to a lesser extent 74,71, and 76. Greed in volume during the dump of the early 70s did not help.

We’ll have to crack that Mag of 1975 La Mish to do a comparison. [berserker.gif]

About five years ago I traded ten older Zinfandels (mid-80s) for six 1970 Bordeaux. I’ve had all but one of them over the ensuing years, and they were quite enjoyable. The one remaining I had someone else’s a year and a half ago; it was quite good; so i’m not in a hurry to finish the set. I’ll probably share it with Jeff Pfohl on his birthday next year, since it’s his birth year wine.