Video

Summary

Some wines or vintages achieve legendary status. The 1982s in Bordeaux are a case in point.

So what’s it really like to taste a bunch of 1982 clarets, 40 years on – featuring some of the best wines of the vintage? 

1982 was a year that famously split opinion – the Brits copping the flak for labelling it too high-yielding, too ripe and ‘Californian’ in style, saying it would never age.

On the opposing side was American wine critic Robert Parker, who championed the vintage and later went on to become one of the most influential wine writers of modern times. 

As for how the wines have held up… In this episode, we spill the beans, while also explaining the historical context as well as the nature of the vintage and the individual wines tasted. These include Chateaux:

• Mouton-Rothschild
• Pichon Comtesse
• Leoville Las Cases
• Leoville Poyferré
• Gruaud Larose
• Ducru Beaucaillou

Along the way we discuss the importance of storage, other vintages that can lay claim to being the, ‘vintage of the century,’ British Railways, current prices for these bottles – and which modern Bordeaux vintages may prove to be as great as 1982 in time.