1995 Vintage Bordeaux Wine Tasting - A Study of 30 Year old Bordeaux

Music is just like wine. Each of us has very different tastes in what we like and dislike.  The music that is “best” for one person can easily be “worst” for another people. So it’s always fun to see when wine is mentioned in song.

The 1995 vintage was the first very good vintage that the critics had to talk about in the 1990's and many of the wines are now just now starting to reach its peak years of drinking pleasure.  Most of the top wines from 1995 are ready to drink but some may need another decade to be drinking at their best but that’s what were going to figure out.

This is true scientific research that we are doing here at the Wine Watch, checking each bottle to see when the best time to consume for the most drinking pleasure.  It's hard word but we are willing to sacrifice our body for our wine drinking people.  These wines are all being served out of Magnum format so you will have plenty of each wine and the wines out of magnum are always fresher and have more aging potential. 

This tasting is a pre-poured sit-down event and is limited to 12 tasters.  The price for this tasting which includes dinner is $350 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463.

1995 Bordeaux Wine Tasting

Friday, September 19^th

7:30 PM

1995 Chateau de Valandraud Saint Emilion Grand Cru

1995 Chateau Pape Clement Pessac-Leognan

1995 Chateau La Mission Haut Brion Pessac Leognan

1995 Chateau Brane-Cantenac, Margaux

1995 Chateau d'Issan, Margaux

1995 Chateau de Tertre Margaux

1995 Chateau Latour 'Les Forts de Latour' Pauillac

1995 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac

1995 Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac

1995 Chateau de Rayne Vigneau Sauternes

Menu

Charcuterie and Cheese Selection

Mushroom Carpaccio with Tomato Tartar and lavender Aioli

Tuna Tartar with Avocado, Nori, Orange and Toasted Walnuts

Duck Confit with Current Demi Glaze and Pommes Frites

Canelés de Bordeaux with Pineapple Rum Sauve

This tasting is a pre-poured sit down event and is limited to 12 tasters.  The price for this tasting and dinner is $350 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463

A bit about the 1995 Vintage from Bordeaux

This year is one of controversy in Bordeaux as it was initially very highly touted by the press.  Many were just ready to praise anything that looked even remotely good as the first four harvests of the decade were not very good.  So when the 1995 vintage came around and the

wines were a product of a large harvest, there was also some economic advantages to giving it high marks. You have to go all the way back to 1986 Bordeaux harvest to find a vintage that produced yields like this. After a moderate winter, the first few months of the growing season delivered enough rain to reset the water tables. The warm spring got the bud break off right on schedule and the flowering completed before June. June, July and August set records for heat and a lack of rain going back as far as 40 years! It was an incredibly hot, dry summer. It rained quite a bit from September 7 through September 19. Those rains caused issues with the Merlot and pushed up the harvest for the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which is part of the reason why these wines show a tannic profile. The 1995 Bordeaux harvest officially began the day the rain stopped on September 20.

1995 Bordeaux wine is a polarizing vintage.  When the critics first tasted these wines the professionals forecast 1995 Bordeaux wine in a positive light and that they just needed time to shed their tannins. This was perhaps because it was the first vintage since 1990 to warrant purchasing as a future and consumers were thirsty for Claret as they bought everything in sight. Even though they were shocked that prices were up more than 100% from the previous vintage in some cases. 1995 Bordeaux wine was considered to be consistent, as it appeared that good wines were produced from the Left Bank and the Right Bank.

With time has 1995 Bordeaux become a disappointment?  There are some that feel it is now a similar vintage to 1975, where far too many wines lack charm. The tannins are still hard in some of the top wines and the wines have an austere character, do they just need more time or will the 1995 Bordeaux wine fails to offer elegance and flattering textures in the end.