The guide to the best wines of the 1971 vintage
If you are looking for a wine from 1971 to offer as a gift to celebrate the birthday of a loved one or to celebrate a milestone, La Bouteille Dorée helps you find your way around with this practical guide to the 1971 vintage.
Bordeaux 1971
1971 is a quality vintage in Bordeaux, mainly due to low yields that led to concentration in the wines. The weather conditions were quite poor during the first half of the year, but the summer was hot and sunny with some rain and offered very good conditions for the harvest. After 50 years of storage, many of the wines from 1971 have exceeded their ageing potential and but we can still distinguish on the left bank the wines of the south of the Médoc and Graves and on the right bank, the wines of Pomerol and Saint-Emilion which offer a lot of elegance and harmony. The 1971 sweet wines of Barsac and Sauternes are also wines for ageing, opulent and concentrated.
Burgundy 1971
A good 1971 vintage in both white and red for the great wines of Burgundy with concentrated wines, but rare today to find due to the small quantities produced. A mild spring brought an early flowering, but a wet June and August alternating sunshine and rainstorms and hail resulted in a reduced harvest. The conditions were fortunately exceptional for the harvest, with in particular, for the white wines, a perfect maturation of the Chardonnays.
Rhône 1971
The 1971 vintage in the Rhone Valley was abundant in the north. The wines of Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie are robust and offer a long ageing potential. The wines of the south, on the other hand, Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the lead, elegant and charming in their youth, have now passed for the most part.
Champagne 1971
Poor weather conditions in Champagne throughout 1971 until September, which saw the arrival of sunshine and heat. The harvest was abundant but the greatest cuvées today offer exceptional champagnes with great elegance and a very delicate substance.
Other successes of 1971
Among the best successes of the 1971 wines are:
- Alsace wines : in Alsace, the harvest was early and exceptionally good in quality. However, the harvest was low in quantity due to the very harsh winter and the flowering which took place under bad weather conditions. The hot summer finally allowed for excellent ripening and a very good state of health of the grapes. The 1971 Alsace wines are generous and harmonious, led by Gewurztraminer followed by Riesling.
- Italian wines : 1971 is one of the greatest vintages of the 20th century with a low harvest of exceptional quality that offered very great wines in Piedmont, (Barolo, Barbaresco) and Tuscany (Chianti, Brunello). Wines that can be kept for a very long time to be discovered today with great pleasure.
- The natural sweet red wines of Roussillon, the old wines of Maury and Rivesaltes.
Find all the bottles of 1971 currently on stock
Find all the bottles from 1971 currently on sale at La Bouteille Dorée. All these wines from 1971 are in stock in our cellars and can be delivered in 24 hours throughout France and even within the day in Paris. If you are looking for a particular bottle in the 1971 vintage, do not hesitate to contact us at info@labouteilledoree.com or at 01.46.22.29.79.