1992 WINE | 1992 FRENCH WINE GUIDE

Year, Vintage 1992

Is 1992 a vintage close to your heart? Is it a year of birth, a year of marriage or any other symbol that makes you want to offer or drink a wine from that year? Let us decipher this vintage for you, to help you buy the bottle that best suits your needs.

> Our 1992 wines in stock

 

• Vintage 1992 in BORDEAUX

Visit 1992 vintage showed another facet of the difficulties a winegrower can encounter during the vine cycle. Sometimes the vine lacks sunshine and warmth, and sometimes, on the contrary, it's too hot. This time, it was the rain that got in the way. Although spring came early thanks to high humidity and warm temperatures, the vines began to flower more than a week before normal. Everyone thought that the 1992 vintage was to be an early year, with an early harvest. The rest of the season was very hot, with a touch of humidity. And while this harvest was heading in the same direction as the great vintages, with the main characteristic of heat, in contrast to these great years, enormous rainfall disrupted the vine cycle and swelled the grape bunches. It was imperative to thin the vines, i.e. reduce the number of bunches of grapes per vine, in order to avoid excessive yields, which would result in diluted, light grapes. Winemakers who make this wise decision will be able to offer juices with satisfactory richness.

As bad news never comes alone, the months of September and October didn't help winemakers produce great wines. However, the Châteaux that harvested their Sauvignon and Semillon whites were able to be satisfied with a very, very good vintage. On the other hand, the second half of September and most of October were rainy, and did not bring the sunshine needed to help the vines reach maturity.

To sum up, the 1992 vintage was not a disastrous one. In fact, despite all the difficulties encountered, we can count ourselves lucky to be able to taste some quality juices. The winemaker's gesture that made the difference in this harvest was the thinning carried out in August.

In the vineyard, the appellation that offers the best wines of 1992 is PomerolThis year, the Moueix family's properties innovated by deploying large black plastic tarpaulins to protect the vines from the rain. This prevented the plots from Petrus and Château Trotanoy to be flooded by torrential rains. This innovation, combined with exemplary work in the vineyard, manual harvesting and highly selective sorting, produced some very fine wines. Other appellations that stood out in 1992 were the wines of Saint-Julien with the castles:  Ducru-Beaucaillou or Château Léoville-Barton. On Saint-Estèphethe Château Haut-Marbuzet also stands out in this appellation. Note that Pessac-Léognan also did very well.

 

 

• Vintage 1992 in BOURGOGNE

Burgundy is the best-endowed region in France. Both white and red wines are of the highest quality. For the reds, the vine cycle went perfectly, with perfect flowering on schedule. The summer was warm with some rain, which produced an abundant harvest. The decision of the winegrowers to harvest green and prefer quality with ripe grapes rather than quantity proved to be the right one. For the best of them, the tannins are present, powerful and the grapes offer highly aromatic wines. The difficulty for the winemaker in this vintage will be ageing. Wines that are too powerful but lack acidity will not stand up well to barrel ageing. For the 1992 vintage, it's best to focus on Beaune reds and whites. The Pommard and Volnay appellations are perfect for reds. They have enough substance and texture to accompany these pretty, velvety, fat red fruits. For the whites, it's the same story. The whites of Meursault, Cortons Charlemagne and Puligny Montrachet are magnificent. The Chardonnays benefited from a very good summer, and their fairly early harvest avoided the occasional rainfall. The most opulent of them will be able to withstand barrel ageing. We still have a few bottles from Domaine Chavy-Chouet, in the Meursault Les Narvaux and Puligny-Montrachet Les Levrons appellations. Even if the wines have lost some of their acidity, their fat, round texture combines with the white truffle aromas typical of fine Burgundy whites.

 

• Vintage 1992 in VALLEE DU RHÔNE

The 1992 vintage is a little below the standards of recent years. Although everything went well at the beginning of the vine cycle, heavy rains fell on part of the vineyard, diluting some plots and preventing others from reaching maturity. You need to choose your wines carefully for this vintage, as there may be some pleasant surprises in store, even if at the time of writing (2021), few wines are yet ready to be tasted under optimal conditions. In the northern Rhône Valley, harvests were abundant, producing wines that reflect their appellation. The rainy month of September lightened the wines somewhat, but they remained medium-bodied, still spicy and rich. As far as the wines of the South are concerned, one appellation is faring much better than the others. This is Châteauneuf-du-Pape, which avoided the heavy downpours and torrential rains that shook the vineyards of Gigondas and the surrounding area. Let's return to the Northern Rhône Valley to talk about the white wines this time, which unfortunately won't leave a lasting impression. The Condrieu wines are also diluted, and although fruity, remain relatively light.

Only the whites from the Hermitage appellation have a richer, fatter texture. The acidity that accompanies them allows them to be enjoyed a little longer.

 

• Vintage 1992 in the rest of France

The rest of France's vineyards are fairly disparate. The Alsace vineyards really suffered from the heavy October rains, which had a major impact on juice ripeness. In the Loire, the vintage is said to be a "winemaker's vintage", with only the best producing top-quality wines, such as Didier Daguenau's Pouilly-Fumé. Finally, Champagne. This year was mild in the vineyards, enabling the owners to harvest well-balanced grapes.

 

The best French wine of the 1992 vintage

According to tasters' opinions, including those of the Robert Parker & The Wine Advocate team, the best wine of 1992 would be Domaine Leflaive's Montrachet Grand Cru!

99/100 Parker
Cellaring : Can be enjoyed now, it has reached its peak.
Tasting notes: "Leflaive's 1992 Montrachet (only their second vintage) is the quintessence of Chardonnay. It's an incredibly rich, highly extracted wine, bursting with flavor, but also wonderfully precise and concentrated." This is Parker's opinion from his 1993 tasting. The comparison is atypical but comical: "This wine is the size of a mammoth!"
Domaine Leflaive has had many successful vintages over the years - 1979, 1985, 1986 and 1989 immediately spring to mind - but the 1992s are the best young wines this estate has produced. Yields averaged 45 hectoliters per hectare, well below recent vintages. The wines are renowned for their purity and elegance, but the 1992s also display a particular level of richness and intensity.

> Our 1992 wines in stock