1970 Bordeaux – eine Probe
1970 is for me the best vintage in Bordeaux between 1961 and 1982. The vintage was equally succesful on both sides of the river, making it an over all more consistent vintage than 1964 and 1966.
The weather was perfect with hot temperatures in August and September.
This led to a large amount of healthy grapes – a record harvest at the time.
The wines show great fruit and balance which have made them age gracefully over half a century. I remember drinking Ducru Beaucaillou and Latour in the early 1980s and regularly since then and they hardly seem to have changed at all. The vintage was enjoyable quite early on which made some think that it wouldn’t age well.
However, good ageing potential depend more on a good balance of all parts rather than power and high alcohol – something we can see in vintages such as 1953, 1959 and 1961 – none needing decades to open up.
Some comments on the wines I had at a dinner in October 2021.
From the right bank: La Conseillante and Cheval Blanc both being quite mature and charming. I preferred the Ausone to Cheval Blanc this time – younger and with more concentrated fruit and structure.
Two weeks before this tasting I was invited to a good friend where we had Pétrus and Lafleur next to each other.
Both equally very great wines with a long future ahead. The Pétrus with sweet and lovely fruit, totally decadent. Lafleur is quite a different wine – great concentration of spicy fruit and a big backbone structure.
From the left bank we had some of my personal favourites.
Montrose with good fruit and structure. I can see why this is called „the poor mans Latour“.
Palmer has lots of sweet soft fruit and outclasses ist neighbour Margaux in this vintage.
Ducru Beaucaillou has long been one of my all-time favourites in 1970. It is a fantastic, elegant wine with no signs of ageing.
The Premier Crus: Margaux and Lafite are both quite disappointing and were not drunk this time.
Haut Brion is a spicy and charming wine but won’t improve further.
Mouton has been somewhat inconsistent over the years but this bottle was very, very good with great fruit and long finish – the best bottle I had of this wine.
Latour is a giant of a wine, not just in the sense of power but with great concentration of fruit and perfect balance. Long finish. Still young but not unapproachable. It is a mystery to me why the price of this wine is on par of recently vintages en-primeur.
Some other 1970s that I have good memories of are La Mission Haut Brion, Lynch Bages, Trotanoy, La Fleur Pétrus and Giscours.
All in all a very good vintage still alive and kicking at over 50 years of age.