The greatest 3 consecutive vintages of all-time?

[Jeff B]

Feel free to list your nominees for the greatest three consecutive vintages of all-time for a wine of your choosing (your favorite wine).

I guess it depends on what vintage chart you reference.

For Champagne, it appears that 1988, 1989 and 1990 lead the way as a consecutive trio. With '88 and '90 being "four star vintages" and '89 at three stars. I could not find three "four star vintages" that were consecutive. This was as close as it got.

Of course, vintages are just generalizations...

Jeff

[Salil]

Feel free to list your nominees for the greatest three consecutive vintages of all-time for a wine of your choosing (your favorite wine).

Too many favorites, so I may end up flooding this thread.

2005, 2006 and 2007 for Hirtzberger Riesling Singerriedel Smaragd. (As much as I LOVE the 2001, and the 1999 is pretty damn awesome as well - the 05 is on the same level, and a bottle of the 2006 recently was jawdroppingly good - baby fat receding a bit, turning more mineral and floral, and unbelievably well balanced. And the '07 just rocks.)

1994, 1995 and 1996 for Rayas CDP. The 96 is wonderfully delicate, acid driven and precise... the 94 is just a masterpiece, and words just fail with the '95.

1988, 89 and 90 for Chave Hermitage. The '90 in particular is just a 'holy shit' wine.

1981, 82 and 83 for Pichon Lalande. The '81 is a delightfully elegant, fragrant wine that's still quite lovely now. The '82 is the most jawdroppingly amazing Bordeaux I've ever encountered. The '83 isn't bad either.

Meanwhile, I'm curious what David B's take may be on some of the German wines...

[David M. Bueker]

Germany? I will have to think for a while, as I can come up with some great 2 vintage runs, but 3 is tough.

'88-'90 in Bordeaux is hard to beat. Same years in Champagne as well.

[Salil]

Germany? I will have to think for a while, as I can come up with some great 2 vintage runs, but 3 is tough.

'88-'90 in Bordeaux is hard to beat. Same years in Champagne as well.

Oh, 88-90 is easy to beat in Bdx. Just pick three straight years from last decade, and chances are good you've nabbed at least two Vintages of the Century.

[David M. Bueker]

Germany? I will have to think for a while, as I can come up with some great 2 vintage runs, but 3 is tough.

'88-'90 in Bordeaux is hard to beat. Same years in Champagne as well.

Oh, 88-90 is easy to beat in Bdx. Just pick three straight years from last decade, and chances are good you've nabbed at least two Vintages of the Century.

Or we can actually look at the question with some intent to answer with supportable choices.

Regarding Germany since the 1971 wine law, '88-'90 might be the best choice. '01-'02 was preceded by 2000 which sucked and followed by the very controversial 2003. '04-'05 got stuck with '06. '07-'09 could be a choice, but none of those years approaches 1990, and '08 is very good but no better. So '88-'90 it is.

[Salil]

Or we can actually look at the question with some intent to answer with supportable choices.

Eh, it's late on a Thursday, it's hard for me to not be rather snarky.

Interesting comments on Germany. I really have very little experience with 1989s (and not a great deal more with 1990s), so can't comment there. But it sounds as if I should seek out a few more from '90 given how favorably you compare it to '07-'09 (and as you know, I love a lot of '08s and 09s).

I was quite a fan of a lot of 2006s on release - thought at some addresses, the sweet wines (Spatlese and up) were utterly amazing, e.g. Donnhoff's Auslesen or the whole Frohlich Spatlese-and-up lineup were thrilling. Will certainly be interesting to see how those wines age.

This would be so much easier if 2000 wasn't such a mess of a vintage.

[Patrick Martin]

'90-'92 Cali Cab is up there as is '85-'87 in Napa, maybe someday '04-'06 Italy?

But '80's Bordeaux is hard to beat ('81-'83, '83-'86, '88-'90, take your pick!)...

[Jeff B]

In Champagne, it was hard to find even two consecutive "blockbuster" vintages (although there are plenty examples of a blockbuster followed by a good year, or vice versa).

I think that 1955 through 1966 is maybe the greatest 11 year stretch in Champagne. That window seen five blockbuster vintages! 1955, 1959, 1961, 1964 and 1966.

Jeff

[Jeff B]

It's also interesting to see the times a blockbuster year followed a poor year. Or vice versa.

In Champagne, this looks to have happened about 4 times:

1949 blockbuster
1950 poor

1964 blockbuster
1965 poor

1966 blockbuster
1967 poor

1976 blockbuster
1977 poor

I'm using Richard Juhlin's vintage charts as my reference for blockbuster (5 stars) and poor (1 star).

Jeff

[Tim York]

"Of all-time"? In that case we have look at what the old-timers had to say. Those whose books I was reading in the 50s were saying that the Bordeaux and Burgundies of the last two decades of the 19th century and those of the first half of the 20th century were not a patch of the pre-phylloxera vintages of the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s.

So delving into my memory of André Simon's Vintagewise, I nominate 1869, 1870 and 1871 for top clarets ,though Broadbent tasting a few decades later has a less high regard for 1871 having apparently missed the reportedly sublime Margaux and Haut-Brion at their peak.

Why not go even further back? Well, though the "Comet" year 1811 was said to be fabulous and drinking gracefully at the age of 115, tasting reports are very sparse and, if one goes back much further, one arrives at the pre-cork age which meant that very few wines had ageing capacity.

[Matthew Latuchie]

Don't have a ton of experience, but these come to mind:

'88-'90 in Bordeaux
'95-'97 in the Loire
'08-'10 in Red Burgundy (still kinda early, but there are so many great options in each vintage)
'05-'07 in Beaujolais
'04-'06 in Chateauneuf-de-Pape

[Bill Hooper]

Germany 2010, 2011, 2012.

[Carl Eppig]

We'll go with Patrick on '85-'87 Napa.