1969 Bordeaux Wine Vintage Summary with harvest information, vintage characteristics, buying tips and links. If you are seeking more in-depth information on anything and everything related to the Bordeaux wine region please see the: All About Bordeaux Wine Guide
1969 was a great year for music. Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Stones and The Beatles all made great records! But it was awful for 1969 Bordeaux wine. After a nice, warm, dry summer, Bordeaux suffered from a massive amount of rain in September. The 1969 Bordeaux harvest officially started, October 6. The small crop did not produce any wines of quality. 1969 Bordeaux wine deserves to be avoided. The best thing that can be said about 1969 Bordeaux wine is, the vintage was the last year in a bad run of vintages that started with 1967.
1969 Bordeaux wine marked the final year for negociants to buy “sur souche.” While most negociants and chateaux had stopped buying and selling sur souche, after their disasterous gamble with the 1961 harvest, a few deals were still cut using that system of dealmaking. Sur souche is the practice of selling the grapes off the vine, before the harvest takes place, let alone prior to the start of the vinificaton. 1969 was the last vintage that dangerous practice was allowed to take place. This also coincided with the changes in the St. Emilion AOC law stating all chateau from that point forward, must bottle their wine. The same rule became AOC law in the Medoc as well as in the rest of Bordeaux, only a few years later.
While 1969 Bordeaux was not much of a wine when released, the vintage continued to get worse with time. 1969 was a much better year for Rock and Roll. Jimi Hendrix knocked everyone out with his performance at Woodstock! Led Zeppelin released their first record, The Who came out with their Rock Opera “Tommy,” The Rolling Stones owned the charts with tracks like “Jumping Jack Flash.” Even though the Fab Four were busy recording “Abbery Road,” they continued growing further apart and getting ready to break up the greatest band that even lived.
To read about other Bordeaux vintages from 1945 to today: Bordeaux Year to Year Detailed Vintage Reports & Guide 1945 to Today
