The April 1974 Revolução dos Cravos (“Carnation Revolution”) ended 41 years of the authoritarian Estado Novo (“New State”) regime in Portugal. Port producers faced the 1974 grape harvest with some trepidation due to the volatile political, social, and economic climate. But some good Port wines were made, such as Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas. Located in an […]

Pablo Picasso’s work was chosen to adorn the 1973 vintage by Mouton’s owner Baron Philippe de Rothschild “in homage to Picasso (1881-1973)” to commemorate Picasso’s passing earlier that year. Château Mouton Rothschild was promoted from Deuxième Cru (Second Growth) to Premier Cru (First Growth) status in 1973 – the only wine estate to have achieved […]

This Pauillac estate was acquired by Baron Philippe de Rothschild (of Mouton Rothschild) in 1970, when it was called Château Clerc-Milon-Mondon. He dropped the Mondon part of the name and redesigned the label, modelling it on a silver “jungfraubecher” wedding beaker from Augsburg dating from 1609. From the 1983 vintage, the label was illustrated with a […]

A light, aromatic, and pleasant Margaux – similar to the 1971 vintage (but less expensive). A mature fine wine to be enjoyed with an equally well-aged friend. See more on Château Margaux 1973 at https://ardenfinewines.com/product/chateau-margaux-1973/

The 1971 Château Mouton Rothschild label displays a 1939 artwork by the (already late by 1971) Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), the original of which now hangs in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The 1971 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild was fruity and precocious as a youngster (like me )… Worth a look for anybody celebrating a […]

Château Latour 1970… In its early days Latour 1970 was a wine that was chewed rather than drunk – it was uncompromisingly tannic. Still, Latour is arguably the best wine of the 1970 Bordeaux vintage and those tannins have kept it going for 50+ years. There were other very good wines from Bordeaux that year […]

When 1962 Lafite was released in 1965, it retailed at about £2 per bottle, which would now equate to about £40. Happy days… This largely forgotten Bordeaux vintage has always been upstaged by the bravado of 1961, which was a small crop and ambitiously-priced. Arden Fine Wines’ bottle of Lafite ’62 came from a private […]

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The 1960 Bordeaux vintage was (I’m told by somebody who remembers 🤭) considered to be light, relatively inexpensive, and to be enjoyed while the superior 1959s matured. It was the biggest crop since the frost-bitten 1956 vintage. There was a shortage of wine so the 1960s were well-bought. Caught between the twin peaks of 1959 […]

The quality of Château d’Yquem’s wine during the 1950s was – shall we say? – irregular. The 1958 vintage was one of the better-balanced wines made by Yquem in the 1950s, a decade in which two years (1951 and 1952) were so poor that no wine was made. (Just imagine having a business for which […]