1975

Bordeaux: After four miserable vintages came the hot vintage of 1975 which briefly put Bordeaux wines in the spotlight once again. The unstable temperature of September turned into good weather for the harvest. The grapes were high in sugar, but many reds, especially those made from Cabernet Sauvignon, lacked phenolic ripeness. This resulted in masculine and even aggressive reds with austere and even harsh tannins.

Wines from Graves and Pomerol turned out to be the most delicious this year. La Mission Haut-Brion and Lafleur-Pétrus stand out as the best, with Trotanoy right after them. Pétrus turned out to be very exceptional with a more aggressive and full-bodied style than usual. The Lafite-Rothschild at the reasonable price of 300 euros is the first Lafite seventies which gives a promise of improvement. On the other hand, Haut-Brion, considered very good, turned out to be a slight disappointment.

For dry whites, it was exceptional and Sauternes was an excellent vintage. The best Sauternes experiences were Yquem, Coutet, Gilette and Suduiraut.

Australia / An uneven year with a wet winter prior to vintage, a cool January, followed by a hot, dry February and rain in March. The cool summer produced good white wines and medium weight red wines (although there were some outstanding exceptions).

In 1975 there were 7,958 hectares of vineyards in Barossa and 39,661 tonnes of wine grapes were crushed in that vintage.

Viticultural advisors promoted returning pruning cuttings to the soil for mulch and top grafting was also pushed as a cost effective method of changing varieties.

Winemakers started using high levels of the preservative SO2 (as high as 1000ppm) for juice storage.

Saltram (Dalgety) opened its central bottling hall connected to the winery by a pipeline which ran across the Angaston-Nuriootpa road. Winemaker Peter Lehmann made his first wines in new American Oak and remembers this as an outstanding year for Saltram Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Barons of the Barossa was formed as a wine fraternity with founding members Cyril Henschke, Sir Condor Laucke, Bill Seppelt, George Kolarivich, Wyndham Hill-Smith, Colin Gramp and Peter Lehmann.

The red wine boom was about to end as drinkers, urged by the Australian Wine Bureau, turned to white wine. Finally, table wine took over from fortifieds as the wine of choice for Australians.

Control from grape to bottle was lost at Leo Buring as the bottling line was relocated to Lindemans Cellars in Lidcombe, NSW. The company’s soft pack “bag in the box” packaging line was moved from Lidcombe to Chateau Leonay. In 1979 it was relocated again to Karadoc Winery, Redcliffs, Victoria.

Port Vintage Report: First Vintage to be declared after the April 1974 Revolution. Fist Vintage totally bottled in Portugal, under legal resolution. After a rainy winter, it was a hot and dry year, particularly in the summer. Some rain at the beginning of September, before the harvest. Late harvest, at the beginning of October. Scarce production. Almost all producers declared production, although few wines proved to be exceptional, revealing themselves to be less lasting than was expected.

After four miserable vintages came the hot vintage of 1975 which briefly put Bordeaux wines back in the spotlight. The unstable temperature of September turned into good weather for the harvest. The grapes were high in sugar, but many reds, especially those made from Cabernet Sauvignon, lacked phenolic ripeness. This resulted in masculine and even aggressive reds with austere and even harsh tannins.

Wines from Graves and Pomerol turned out to be the most delicious this year. La Mission Haut-Brion and Lafleur-Pétrus stand out as the best, with Trotanoy right after them. Pétrus turned out to be very exceptional with a more aggressive and full-bodied style than usual. The Lafite-Rothschild at the reasonable price of 300 euros is the first Lafite seventies which gives a promise of improvement. On the other hand, Haut-Brion, considered very good, turned out to be a slight disappointment.

For dry whites, it was exceptional and Sauternes was an excellent vintage. The best Sauternes experiences were Yquem, Coutet, Gilette and Suduiraut.

Vintage Report by Richard Geoffroy, Dom Pérignon / The weather conditions were good throughout the year. Due to a cold spring, bud break was extremely late, but flowering took place in almost perfect conditions. The summer was hot and sunny, punctuated by a few storms in August. The harvest began on September 29 with good weather, which quickly deteriorated.