‘95 Was a Very Good Year

One of the unavoidable complications of wine is vintage. The term is straightforward enough: Vintage means the year of the harvest.

Champagne and Port are usually blends of different vintages; only occasionally is the wine of a single year so well-balanced that it deserves to be bottled by itself. With them, the wine of a “vintage year” is always exceptional.

But the great majority of table wines declare vintage on their labels, no matter the quality, and this obliges the buyer to make a study of vintages, because some years are better than others.

Good vintages are those years in which the grapes become fully ripe, brimming not just with natural sugar (which yeasts will transform into alcohol) but with a full measure of the hundreds of organic compounds that give wines their distinctive flavors.

Another characteristic of a good vintage is balance, which in wine jargon means the equilibrium between fruitiness and acidity. Without a crisp, refreshing acidity, an over-fruity wine is like an excessively sweet Rome apple. But if a wine lacks fruit, then the acidity becomes excessively prominent and the wine is unpleasantly shrill. In wine, as in budgets, balance is everything.

The obvious problem of following vintages is simply remembering them. When the world drank just a few wines--Bordeaux, Burgundy or just the locally produced tipple--remembering vintages was a snap.

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Unfortunately, a year that’s good in California might be less good in Oregon. And even in California, what’s better in Napa Valley might be worse in Santa Barbara. On top of that, there are France, Italy, Spain and Australia, with all their regional differences. Who can keep track of the world’s vintages? Almost no one.

Although California shows plenty of vintage variation, the fact is that vintages matter more in Europe. That is to say, the ups and downs are greater there. France and Italy, especially, see breathtaking swings in quality from year to year.

Occasionally, a vintage comes along that makes life easy. At the risk of oversimplifying, here it is: For French and Italian wines, remember 1995. That’s it. The ’95 vintage was simply a standout in Europe, and it’s turning out to be pretty good in California too. But let’s stick to France and Italy for a moment, since the ‘95s are starting to trickle in.

What should the savvy buyer look for?

Burgundy for starters. Great vintages in Burgundy are relatively rare. And ’95 is going to be a vintage that Burgundy junkies will talk about for years to come. Both the reds (Pinot Noir) and the whites (Chardonnay) did exceptionally well. That in itself is unusual, because only rarely does a vintage perform well in both varieties.

The white Burgundies are the best since 1990 and may well surpass the ‘90s. The low vineyard yields created unusually concentrated white wines which, happily, also have good, strong acidity. The ’95 white Burgundies are thick-textured, intense and--thanks to the acidity--sure to be very long-lived.

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Look especially for white wines from Meursault, a village that saw even lower vineyard yields than the other well-known appellations. For white Burgundy fans, ’95 is also the vintage to hunt down such so-called lesser white Burgundies as Saint-Romain, Saint-Aubin and Auxey-Duresses.

As for the ’95 red Burgundies, they too can be exceptional. The better ’95 reds display lovely fruit intensity with superb acidity. The performance appears a little more mixed than that of the whites, but that’s a quibble. As always in Burgundy, the producer matters enormously. But Los Angeles wine shops have a stellar selection of Burgundy’s best growers, so securing choice red and white ’95 Burgundies is easier here than in most areas.

Elsewhere in France, Bordeaux turned in what appears to be an outstanding performance. But prices, reflecting a pent-up demand (there hasn’t been a great Bordeaux vintage since 1990), have skyrocketed. The highest prices ever paid for top-ranked red Bordeaux have been paid in ’95. And it’s all on a futures or pre-arrival basis, meaning that the buyers put up their money for wines they won’t even see for a year.

The best bet for ’95 Bordeaux is to scoop up the lesser properties (collectively known as petits cha^teaux), which sell for $15 to $20 a bottle. Some outstanding wines, brimming with concentrated, softly lush fruit, are to be found in this category.

The places to look for bargain ‘95s in France are the Loire Valley and the vast swath of southern France, especially the area called Languedoc. The Loire saw a phenomenal year in ‘95, resulting in exceptional red and white wines.

The red Loire ‘95s, from such appellations as Chinon and Bourgeuil, both of which are made exclusively from Cabernet Franc, are superb. They are intense, beautifully structured and fragrant.

Among the whites, the traditional Sauvignon Blanc standbys of Sancerre, Chavignol and Pouilly-Fume turned in stellar performances. As with white Burgundies, these dry white wines also are concentrated and well-balanced.

But perhaps the real standouts in the ’95 Loire Valley whites are the sweeter Chenin Blancs from Coteaux du Layon, Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume. These districts in the western Loire received unusual amounts of botrytis or noble rot, the rather disgusting-looking mold that shrivels the grapes, concentrates the juice and imparts a delectable cinnamon-spicy scent and taste. It’s highly prized and relatively infrequent. The ’95 vintage created some of the richest, lushest botrytized Chenin Blancs since the ’89 vintage. Collectors of these wines are excitedly snapping them up as if they were trout at feeding time.

Southern France, which embraces Provence, the Languedoc and much of the Rho^ne Valley, had a dream vintage in 1995. Rarely have growers seen better grapes. Almost as important is the fact that ’95 is a benchmark year for winemaking quality as well. Many parts of southern France, for too long backward in their winemaking technique, have been transformed by an infusion of capital and ambition over the last decade. In ‘95, the results are the most impressive yet, with dozens of beautifully made, fresh, clean red wines made from Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and Carignan, among other local varieties.

Many of these wines, especially those from the Languedoc region, are still largely unknown and spottily distributed. This is where a good retailer makes all the difference. Fortunately, prices are more than reasonable, rarely topping the $10 mark. So the adventurous wine drinker can scoop up several bottlings and enjoy the thrill of a new (cheap) discovery. This is the star vintage to navigate from.

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In Italy, the ’95 vintage also turned in a memorable performance, the wines of such northerly areas as Piedmont earning great acclaim, but here there’s some fine print: The last half of September saw rain, which diluted such early ripening varieties as Arneis, Dolcetto and Barbera.

The rains ceased at the end of September, and the critical first 15 days of October were warm, sunny and dry. This means that great wines were made in Piedmont--but only the ones, like Barolo and Barbaresco, that are made 100% from the late-ripening Nebbiolo variety.

Yields were low, resulting in very small production. This guarantees painfully high prices, because Barolo and Barbaresco are much sought after in deep-pocket markets of Switzerland, Germany and the United States. In fact, futures are being offered on some of the most fashionable producers, which is something of a first for these Italian wines.

Farther south in the Chianti zone, 1995 looks like a flat-out winner. Tastings of several dozen Chiantis show ’95 to be likely the most reliably good Chianti since the great 1990 vintage. We won’t see the ’95 Chiantis roll in for at least another six months at the earliest, but keep an eye peeled. Prices will be reasonable, and they should prove to be some of the most rewarding buys around.

Many of the Italian white wines from such regions as Friuli and Alto Adige turned in stellar performances, with rich, lush wines. In fairness, there can be a problem of lower than usual acidity in some of these dry white wines, especially those from Friuli; it got a little too warm in certain spots. Still, the ’95 Italian whites are worth pursuing. Look especially for wines from the Alto Adige region, which abuts Austria, because it had one of its best vintages in years in ’95.