The Cat’s Whiskers: Bordeaux 1961

BY NEAL MARTIN | OCTOBER 1, 2019

Chairman Miaow is unhappy. The feline king of the house has been looking forward to a quiet evening prowling the dining room, stalking birds, cleaning his paws and seeking out his human underling for tummy tickles. Purr-fect. Then at six o’clock the doorbell rings and in comes a man sporting the grin of an overexcited five-year-old. Chairman Miaow thinks, “Not again.” The guest brandishes a bottle of wine, which is nothing new at this address, but why not proffer a proper beverage such as milk to show your appreciation of hospitality? To his great displeasure, within an hour the dining room throngs with a motley crew of dipsomaniacs jabbering on about – quelle surprise – wine. He surveys the bottles amassing on the sideboard, harbingers of a long and bibulous night, and repairs to the master bedroom to slumber through the soirée and then reclaim his territory after the humans have had their fun.

The 1961 vintage continues to elicit tingles down the spine of Bordeaux-lovers. Almost sixty years later, how are they holding up and do they still deserve our reverence? What factors determined their quality? And who is Chairman Miaow?

Personally, I am sure that Chairman Miaow, a feline of impeccable taste, would have approved of the vinous fare. Had he observed carefully, he would have noticed that the aforementioned bottles were full of 1961 Claret (at least until the small hours of the morning). Focusing on one of the most lionized Bordeaux vintages of the century, the roll call of châteaux was impressive and heightened the expectations of the English, Antipodean and East Asian oenophiles eager to see whether 1961 delivers where it matters: in the glass. Before broaching the performances, let us investigate the reasons why 1961 remains such a fêted vintage.

The Growing Season

Whereas 1959 is the high point of postwar recovery, you might aver that 1961 was the starting gun of Bordeaux’s modern era, almost a “year zero.” I will explain why after I summarize the weather that growing season.

Following a wet winter, spring was unseasonably mild; at Latour they noticed the first leaves dappling the landscape green on March 10. Temperatures then began to drop, causing some localized frost on March 25 and 29, too early to inflict serious damage. April remained cold, retarding the vines’ progress, but that warm spell in early March had given them a head start and they flowered on May 20. This late in the season, surely the risk of frost was behind them? But on May 27 and 28 the mercury began to drop, and on May 29 they had their answer. Damage was severe, affecting the more precocious Merlot vines and consequently impacting the Right Bank more than the Left, which is advantaged by partial protection from the regulating effects of the Gironde Estuary. Even so, Latour still lost around 75% of their crop. One must also factor in that many affected vines were fledglings, replanted after the devastating frosts of 1956, particularly on the more exposed, colder clay soils of the Right Bank.