The guide to the best wines of the 1991 vintage
Are you looking for a wine from 1991 to mark an important date or celebrate a birthday? 1991 was a globally difficult vintage in France and Europe. La Bouteille Dorée offers you this little guide to help you find the bottle from 1991 that will really please its recipient.
Bordeaux 1991
1991 was a small vintage in terms of quantity, a year that winemakers remember today as the one when the April frosts destroyed more than 2/3 of the harvest. It is also not a great vintage in terms of quality, the rains at the end of September causing a dilution of the wines. But it is in these difficult vintages that we recognize the best winemakers and the best estates, those who have the rigour and stubbornness to sort the fruit and sort again, until they reach the desired quality to produce great wines. The Graves were less affected by the frosts and many of the great chateaux in the north of the Médoc, Saint-Estèphe and Pauillac, also produced decent wines, even more so for the Merlot-dominant wines. On the other hand, there were few successes for the sweet wines of Barsac, and even less so in Sauternes, with very small quantities, some châteaux not even producing wines that year.
Burgundy 1991
The 1991 vintage in Burgundy was no more quantitative than in Bordeaux. The region also experienced destructive frosts in April, and although the summer was hot and dry, it was disrupted by hailstorms in June and August, contributing to a sharp reduction in the harvest. The changing conditions in September forced the winemakers to harvest early, with varying ripeness for both the whites and reds. The wines are of average quality and only a few grands crus from the Côte de Nuits, perhaps less so in the Côte de Beaune, have been able to do well with very rigorous sorting during the harvest.
Rhône 1991
It is in the northern Rhône Valley that we find the best red wines produced in France in this 1991 vintage. The region was spared the frosts that struck elsewhere, in Bordeaux, Burgundy or the Loire, and experienced a hot and dry summer. The result was therefore very good for the great vineyards of Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage, Cornas and Saint-Joseph, with rich, although medium-strength wines, the best of which have survived well over the years. The south of the Rhône Valley, led by Châteauneuf-du-Pape, was not so lucky, with heavy rains diluting the wines, and very few have survived to this day.
Champagne 1991
Between the great Champagne vintages of the exceptional 1990 and 1995, the 1991 vintage pales in comparison, due to abundant rainfall during the harvest. A rigorous selection of grapes nevertheless allowed large houses to produce good vintage champagnes, albeit with a shorter ageing potential.
Alsace 1991
Alsace is one of the few regions of France that offered good wines in 1991, miraculously escaping the frosts of April and even if the flowering was later, the hot and dry summer that followed held the promise of a great vintage, in line with the three previous ones. The rains in September decided otherwise, but if the 1991 vintage did not reach the peaks of 1990 or 1989, it remained very good for Alsace wines thanks to a very good maturity of the grapes. However, the quantity of late-harvest wines and selection of noble grapes was very small.
Other successes of 1991
Among the great successes of the 1991 wines, we can note:
- Elsewhere in France: the best Beaujolais wines, Cahors wines, natural sweet red wines from Roussillon (Maury, Rivesaltes).
- In Italy: difficult climatic conditions in northern Italy did not allow the production of very great wines in Piedmont and the best successes are found in Tuscany where Sangiovese was able to give great wines for ageing.
- In Spain: the climatic conditions were also disturbed in Spain,but the best wineries offer great red wines from Rioja that have survived very well over the last thirty years.
- In the USA: the 1991 vintage was generally successful in the United States, with large volumes that required selection to produce the great wines. Leading the way are the Cabernet Sauvignon wines of Napa Valley with great concentrated and balanced red wines, and the Merlots of Alexander Valley and Sonoma Valley.
Find all the bottles of 1991 on sale now
Find all the bottles from 1991 currently on sale at La Bouteille Dorée. All these wines from 1991 are in stock in our cellars and can be delivered in 24 hours throughout France and some even during the day in Paris. If you are looking for a particular bottle in the 1991 vintage, do not hesitate to contact us at info@labouteilledoree.com or at 01.46.22.29.79.
