How are the wines of the 1963 vintage? THE GUIDE

Is 1963 a vintage close to your heart? Is it a year of birth, a year of marriage or some other symbol that makes you want to offer or drink a wine from that year? We'll take a closer look at this vintage to help you buy the bottle that best suits your needs.

> Our 1963 wines in stock!

Vintage 1963 in BORDEAUX

In the memory of winegrowers, never has a vintage been as catastrophic as the 1963 vintage, or perhaps the 1965 vintage... This year, 63, was to be the start of complicated vintages, when the sun made us wait and the soils of the Bordeaux vineyards became waterlogged. It is rare to have so much rain between the months of July and September. As a result, the grapes produced clear juices with little taste, poor balance and, above all, no tannin. We don't think it's possible to enjoy a wine from this vintage today. This description applies equally to red, dry and sweet white wines...

Sadly, a year to forget.

 

Vintage 1963 in BOURGOGNE

The 1963 vintage will not be remembered by tasters and lovers of great wines. However, as many winemakers say, it was the year of the "miracle". Unfortunately, not for the quality of the wines produced, as the less conscientious winegrowers downgraded their production or sold it in bulk, but rather the miracle of a very, very late harvest. The winegrowers had to wait until November to harvest, so difficult was it for the grapes to reach maturity. It has to be said that the weather was not at its best. The months of April, May and June had proceeded normally, with no delay in flowering. Then came a catastrophic July, an extremely rainy August and a cold, wet September. Nothing good for vine development. It took a decent month of October to help them soak up the sun, but it wasn't enough to make up for the delay accumulated over the summer.

There's no need to go into detail about Burgundy's sub-regions, since no more wines are drinkable from this vintage, and owning a bottle of wine from this region will only be useful to collectors.

However, even if these days it's impossible to find any, and the wine must surely be tired, one white wine region fared a little better than the others. This is the vineyard of Chablis, which even though it suffered the same climatic difficulties as the rest of Burgundy, produced wines of better quality.

 

Vintage 1963 in the rest of France

Whether in the Rhône Valley, Alsace or the Loire, the vintage was catastrophic. It rained all summer long over almost the whole of France, resulting in the proliferation of grey rot, which rendered the grapes virtually unusable. In all honesty, only one region fared well in the 1963 vintage. It's Champagne. Champagne has the right to blend vintages. And they've made no secret of it. The Comité Interprofessionnel diplomatically announces that the excessive freshness of the 1963 vintage will blend perfectly with more supple wines. And the winemakers have not failed to do just that...

> The best 1963 wines in stock!