The guide to the best wines of the 1978 vintage
Looking for a wine from 1978 to mark an important date or celebrate an anniversary? 1978 is a very good vintage for most wines from France, even excellent for wines from the Rhône Valley or Italian wines from Piedmont. Find the great wines that can still offer beautiful taste surprises after 40 years of conservation. La Bouteille Dorée offers you this little guide to help you find the bottle from 1978 that will really please its recipient.
Bordeaux 1978
1978 is a very good vintage for Bordeaux wines. After rather unfavourable conditions in spring and early summer, which led to a decrease in volumes, the weather conditions became exceptional from the beginning of August. The end of the season was magnificent and the harvest was late. The great wines of Graves, Médoc, Saint-Emilion and Pomerol offer wines for laying down that have survived the last 40 years without too much difficulty. Aside from the very best chateaux, the sweet white wines of Barsac and Sauternes generally lack concentration due to the dry autumn weather blocking the development of botrytis.
Burgundy 1978
In Burgundy too, the very good conditions at the end of the season allowed the grapes to ripen nicely with good acidity. The great red wines of the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune of 1978 still offer beautiful qualities today, and the great white wines, Corton-Charlemagne or Puligny-Montrachet for example, have been able to cross the ages thanks to the perfect maturity of the Chardonnays.
Rhône 1978
First of all, 1978 was the best vintage of the 70s for the Rhône Valley. The weather conditions in the spring were much better than in Bordeaux or Burgundy and were also exceptional from August onwards. The great wines of Côte-Rôtie and Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1978, in particular, are magnificent: very beautiful tannins and a beautiful and fine structure, thanks to a marked acidity in their youth that has made them stand the test of time. We had to wait another 20 years, 1998 and 1999, to find Rhône wines of this quality.
Champagne 1978
Alsace 1978
As elsewhere in the northern regions, the Alsatian vineyards suffered from the poor climatic conditions of 1978, causing a late ripening of the grapes, fortunately carried out thanks to the exceptionally fine weather that followed in September. However, the volumes were low and the wines were not very suitable for ageing, apart from a few late harvests and selections of noble grapes from great terroirs.
Other successes of 1978
Other successes of the 1978 wines include:
- In Italy : with the Rhône Valley in France, it is in Italy in Piedmont that the 1978 vintage offers the best wines. Even if the flowering was difficult due to the first 5 months of humidity and coolness, the heat returned from June and the late season was exceptional with hot days and cool nights, giving the Nebbiolo grapes a perfect ripeness. The great Barolo and Barbaresco wines of 1978 are hard to find but well worth the effort.
- In the USA : some great Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Napa Valley are still worth a visit.
Find all the bottles of 1978 currently on stock
Find all the bottles from 1978 currently on sale at La Bouteille Dorée. All these wines from 1978 are in stock in our cellars and can be delivered in 24 hours throughout France and even within the day in Paris and 48 to 72 hours in most european countries. If you are looking for a particular bottle in the 1978 vintage, do not hesitate to contact us at info@labouteilledoree.com or at 01.46.22.29.79.