For those of you born or married, etc in 1995, don’t wait until 2025 to buy those 30th anniversary wines. It’s always best to do that the year before.

During The Fine Wine Experience Burghound Symposium, Allen Meadows gave us a masterclass on 1995 Burgundy as we tasted through a range of white and red grand cru examples at the Shanghai Bulgari Hotel’s Il Ristorante Niko Romito. 

1995 had a solid if not exciting reputation. Allen went into some detail on what gave the wines their particular vintage fingerprint, which as usual included a lot of challenges. On the basis of what he explained to us I would have held lower expectations than I did, but on the whole the 13 wines we tasted were mostly superb today, 29 years later. Admitedly, these focused on top domaines and vineyards, so in the quality triangle (soil, year, maker) we had two bases firmly on our side already.

Below you will find my tasting notes and scores for the wines we drank with dinner, as well as our current 1995 Burgundy inventory here in Hong Kong.

But first allow me to summarise what Allen Meadows had to say about the vintage, and about the cultural context of 29 years ago in time, an important factor in how the wines turned out. As Allen reminded us, “29 doesn’t seem distant, but the sense in 1995 was different to now.” Economically the region was not riding high in the way it is today. The transition from the Burgundians small holder farmers who sold to negocients, through to the domaine practices of today (farming, winemaking, bottling and distributing) was underway but far from complete. Global warming was only beginning to show its impact (Allen cites 1989 and 1990 as the first real products of this). Domaines were concerned about rains and rot toward harvest than they were about heat and drought. And so 1995 turned out to be typical of these concerns, as there was a lot of rot. A relatively warm winter had meant an early start to growth, but cold weather followed including snow in May. Flowering was troubled and lead to shatter – bunches with a lot of shot (seedless small) berries (it would turn out to be the second smallest vintage of the decade for reds, better for whites). This meant at a starting point, a high potential for concentration in the 1995 red through a low ratio between skins and juice.

But the problem was rot, and the potential for more rot, even as the berries ripened on the vine. Allen described 1995 as “a vintage of the rich”, meaning, those who could afford to wait for riper fruit, and risk losing around 5% per day of their crop to rot risking that chance, could make good wines potentially. Those who couldn’t picked soon after the ban de vendange, permitting them to do so. And this was declared on 21st September of the Côtes de Beaune, 25th September for the Côtes de Nuit, and 29th September in Chablis. Sorting tables were rare back then. As Allen described it, the usual practice back then was simply a little snip off the affected part of any bunches that showed rot, while picking, if at all. 

So, if we look at the natural vintage style for the reds, as a whole, we can imagine a vintage with a mix of ripe and underripe fruit, some rot taint perhaps, but the concentration of colours, and extraction from skins with lower amounts of juice in the vat. But if we focus on the best domaines – those who waited for better ripeness, who picked or sorted with good hygiene, that high intensity vintage could translate into quite classic and long-lived wines. The issue was in the winery too in 1995, where it could be easy to over-extract and make overly tannic wines. I do feel a certain tannic grip is one of the signatures of the vintage. Their backbone has preserved them well, but it is not an elegant vintage. 

For the whites, the problem was possibly a harvest that began a little too late, and with some botrytis, some exoticism in the wines. At the time, Allen said, the 1995 white were better received than the reds, because they were rich and relatively soft. 1995 whites have density.

For all that, as I mentioned, we picked out some of the very best vineyards for this dinner – all grand crus – and star domaines. So, this was not a true ‘vintage survey’, but rather a look at some of the best that could be pulled from it. And on the whole I thought the results were very positive. Read on…

All notes here, Linden Wilkie, 12th April 2024, Shanghai