Anything good from '81?

WINE TALK
21

+1. To-date, the '81 is my all-time favorite vintage of Bosconia. Stunning wine - and, as you noted, still needs time to show it’s best stuff. This wine will easily outlive me.

For Tondonia red, have to go with the '64, and for white the '70.

22

Ridge Montebello, La Conseillante, and Beaucastel are all really good.

23

Penfold Grange (then called Grange Hermitage) is quite good in 1981.

24

In 1981 I was visiting Domaine de la Pousse d Or maybe mid September…Things were looking good and then it started to rain. Gerard Potel said it was nothing to worry about but it was. Somehow Bordeaux, Beaujolais and the Rhone escaped the rain. Las Cases is very good. At the time 82 overshadowed the 81s.

The California Cabernet idea is a good one, but who has stock??

25

'81 wasn’t as memorable as the run the Loire had from '85 to '90, but still a better than average year for Chenin Blanc. Best part is you can find bottles of Moulin Touchais or other producers relatively easily and they’ll be utterly drinkable.

26

1981 was a truly special vintage on Rioja. As mentioned above, Lopez de Heredia Tosconia and Bosconia are terrific. I’d also include the Prado Enea.

Cheers,

Hal

27

Krug collection from Magnum is superb. 1981 Château Coutet Cuvée Madame is really good. Comte de Vogue Musigny is also excellent.

28

Also maybe the last great Viña Real Gran Reserva. (We’ll see.)

29

On the LDH front, do only the Gran Reservas last this long? Or are all excellent?

30

Krug is fantastic.
One wine which has not been mentioned is Haut-Brion 1981 which is very great.
And if you can think of it, Romanée Conti 1981 is a magnificent wine that I drank two times (the other 1981 DRC drunk 9 times were great too).

To be sure, go to Vega Sicilia Unico, and Châteauneuf du Pape.

31

I mentioned Graves. :slight_smile: Haut Brion was the best wine at a 1981 Bordeaux dinner a few years ago.

32

Nah, worst vintage of the century. :wink:

33

I was served an 81 CUNE Vina Real crianza last week. It was one of the greatest Riojas I’ve ever had. Evidently they sometimes put crianza labels on even gran reservas in those days if they couldn’t move the top wines. I suspect that was the story here, as the wine had great depth and was utterly fresh.

34

Clearly I’ve been (very happily) schooled! Good news :slight_smile:

35

I’ve also had an 81 Montrose in the last year and thought it had held up impressively well given the vintage. Not a life changing wine, but quite classic, very good for the price and relative to expectations.

36

A bottle of Leoville Las Cases last Saturday was very, very good. Solid mature Bordeaux, not the epitome of elegance but a very good food wine. Needed even some time in the glass to open up.
Vega Sicilia Unico is splendid, Chateau Margaux from well stored bottles is beautiful.
Cheers
Rainer

37

A reply that only proofs the lacking knowledge of the writer … (despite the joke …)

HERE:

was another thread on 1981

I did write:

Chateauneuf-du-Pape … no doubt. Definitely the most successful region, almost no bad wines made in 1981 - and should also be not too expensive, except the stars like Rayas, Pegau(better than…), Beaucastel, Bonneau…
Yesterday I had an outstanding Fortia, btw…<

Also Rioja and Champagne are fine … and for Bordeaux several good suggestions are mentioned above, like Pichon Lalande, Lafite, Margaux (not Mouton!, Latour is good, not great), Haut-Brion and LMHB, Las Cases, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Montrose, Gruaud-Larose, Palmer, on the lower level Poujeaux was very good … and some excellent Sauternes …

In Burgundy it´s difficult … I´ve had a few excellent bottles, but it will be very hard to find exactly these specific ones …
d´Angerville Champans, Maison Leroy Pommard 1er Cru, Charmes-Chambertin (negociant, name forgotten), a very good Hospice de Beaune Les Didiers (bottler forgotten), Richebourg Jean Gros (but that was 20 years ago) …

If I would like to find a good bottle of 1981 I would stick first to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, then to one of the Bordeaux mentioned above and/or Rioja (incl. Vega Sicilia) … 1981 was also not bad in German and Austrian sweet Riesling …

38

I would strongly encourage you to pick up a 1981 Musar (so long as Broadbent imported it) but there are other great wines to be had out there. I stumbled onto this wine that a friend was given from the cellar from someone in the family and was really wowed by it late last year.

  • 1981 LaCour Pavillon - France, Bordeaux (11/10/2019)
    This is F-ing ridiculous!! A deep golden yellow in the Zalto Universal. This leads with butterscotch, chamomile tea, and honey comb on the nose. Open close to 90 minutes now and this just keeps getting better. There is no perceptible acidity, but it is just plain lovely. The Semillon seams to be screaming out. There’s a lemony richness in the mid palate that just explodes and unloads enough tropical fruits to justify a fruit salad. Outstanding!!!

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39

You know what, you’re correct. ‘61 was way worse. [stirthepothal.gif]

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1956