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26 August 2024Years to Remember
Vintage wines are a fine way to mark a special anniversary – unless, perhaps, you happen to have been born in 1967
T
here is a story – which may very well be urban myth – about a wine writer who was touring the great Port houses of the Douro Valley in Portugal. Whenever talk turned to the great Port vintage of 1963, he made the same speech: ‘1963? My birth year, as it happens. And people are so kind here – I think just about everyone has given me a bottle of it to take away.’ Such is the legendary politeness of the Port companies that I am led to believe his hire car was groaning with top-notch Port by the time he headed home.
Vintage wines are a fine way to mark a special anniversary – unless, perhaps, you happen to have been born in 1967
T here is a story – which may very well be urban myth – about a wine writer who was touring the great Port houses of the Douro Valley in Portugal. Whenever talk turned to the great Port vintage of 1963, he made the same speech: ‘1963? My birth year, as it happens. And people are so kind here – I think just about everyone has given me a bottle of it to take away.’ Such is the legendary politeness of the Port companies that I am led to believe his hire car was groaning with top-notch Port by the time he headed home.
The sting in the tail is that, according to the story, he was not born in 1963 at all. Perhaps, like me, he had the misfortune to enter the world in 1967 – a famously duff vintage for just about every great wine you can name (minus Sauternes and the odd vintage Port).
‘Wines, particularly vintage wines, have a nostalgic element to them, which is quite powerful and hard to resist,’ says Levi Hensel, director of marketing at the Antique Wine Company (AWC), a fine wine supplier which owes its very existence to the desire to mark that special birthday or anniversary with a relevant bottle of something special.
‘Wines, particularly vintage wines, have a nostalgic element to them, which is quite powerful and hard to resist’
AWC was set up some 25 years ago by Stephen Williams, after his passion for wine had led him to source vintage wine gifts for friends. Williams started picking up cellars from old estates and manor houses across the UK and Europe, recognising that there was a latent interest in wines of a certain vintage and provenance.
In particular, the corporate market proved lucrative, thanks to a never-ending succession of CEOs and MDs celebrating landmark birthdays or anniversaries. Born in 1945? What gift could be more handsome than a bottle of the legendary ’45 Lafite? Marking the milestones in people’s professional and personal lives became AWC’s early raison d’être.
Why are we talking about this now? Because, whether or not you happen to have an important birthday or anniversary this year, 2015 is a landmark of a different type.
When it comes to commemorative vintage wine gifts, you are spoilt for choice, with great or very good Bordeaux vintages in 2005, 1995, 1985… you get the idea. Right back to the legendary ’45s, years ending in five are uniformly excellent for the likes of Lafite, Latour and Margaux. Except for 1965. Rather like ’67, that was a disaster.
And, if your taste extends more to Côte de Nuits than Pauillac, the good news is that 2005, 1995 and 1985 are reliable bets for classic Burgundy as well. And if that important anniversary is of the silver variety, 1990 Bordeaux is pretty darn good too.
Vintage wine gifts are only a small part of the AWC operations these days – supplying fine wines to an array of private clients accounts for the bulk of the business. ‘But people will still ring us up because they’ve got a friend’s, spouse’s or partner’s birthday, and we’ll take care of it,’ says Hensel.
This year, you are spoilt for choice for commemorative vintage wine gifts, with great or very good Bordeaux vintages in 2005, 1995 and 1985
‘Taking care of it’ in the past has included providing the wines for the 70th birthday of former President George Bush Snr in 1994, and sourcing some historic bottles from 1912 for Paramount Pictures’ celebratory Titanic Oscars party after James Cameron’s film scooped 11 Academy Awards in 1997.
The company also entered the Guinness Book of World Records when it sold a bottle of 1811 Château d’Yquem for a cool $117,000 (£78,500). In 2011, naturally.
While the bottle (and its contents) remain at the centre of the anniversary gifting market, AWC offers a Vintage Wine Gift package that can also include a copy of The Times newspaper from the day in question, plus a vintage report from the year and information on the wine itself.
Bordeaux First Growths of the ilk of Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Mouton and Haut-Brion tend to be the most favoured options, and for very good reasons: if you are marking, say, a 60th birthday, you need a wine with longevity.
‘Those wines typically have the ability to last and to gain nuances, but we do get requests for Burgundy or top estates in the US,’ says Hensel.
And if someone desperately wants – to pluck a purely hypothetical case out of the air – a bottle of Margaux from a desperate vintage like 1967?
‘We’ll always offer advice if it’s a poor vintage,’ says Hensel. ‘We may try to steer them towards something else – maybe Rioja, Scotch, vintage Armagnac or sweet wines. We do a lot with Château d’Yquem because it ages so well.’
Unusual requests tend to focus on the method of delivery rather than the gift itself. In cases like this, it helps that Williams has his pilot’s licence.
‘We might get someone who says they need a case of wine for a birthday celebration in Gstaad tomorrow,’ reports Hensel. ‘Then our CEO just hops in his own plane and hand-delivers it.’ Personal service indeed…
Words: Staff
Vintage Wine Gifts
All supplied by the Antique Wine Company and including a 75cl bottle of wine, copy of The Times and information on the vintage and château in question Château Haut-Brion 2005 (£835)This legendary estate in Pessac is now subsumed by Bordeaux’s creeping urban sprawl, but retains a fame that has endured for centuries – at least as far back as 1663, when Samuel Pepys enjoyed a glass or two of ‘Ho Bryen’. Château La Mission Haut-Brion 1995 (£425)
A close neighbour to Haut-Brion and under the same ownership, this property retains its own distinct character and is First Growth in all but name, thanks to its consistently excellent performance over recent years. Château Angélus 1990 (£720)
Vies with Cheval Blanc, Ausone and Pavie for the title of finest property in St-Emilion and noted for its quintessential expression of the Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes. Sumptuous wine. Château Lafite-Rothschild 1985 (£875)
Among the five first growths, this is unofficially primus inter pares, commanding consistently stratospheric prices in recent years. It’s also classic mature Bordeaux par excellence. Château d’Yquem 1965 (£965)
Missed vintages at Yquem are like hen’s teeth, so even in an otherwise disastrous year such as ’65, this gem of Sauternes managed somehow to make a great sweet wine – but not much of it.