1985 Wine

1985 Wine

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The 1985 vintage begins with the coldest winter since 1956: the January frost damaged part of the vineyards, before a mild summer and then a long, dry and bright autumn slowly ripened perfectly healthy grapes. From this late season emerge seductive reds, supple and perfumed, with silky tannins, charming in youth while also holding well in the cellar. The hierarchy is clear: in Bordeaux, Merlot carries the Right Bank, where Château La Conseillante unfolds a velvety flesh typical of Pomerol, while the Médoc bets on elegance with Château Mouton Rothschild. Yet it is in red Burgundy and the northern Rhône that 1985 reaches its peak, while Sauternes, deprived of botrytis by the autumn drought, remains in the background. To place this year among the great vintages, browse our Vintage Guide.

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1985 vintage blog

Our article on the 1985 vintage
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Grand cru classé de Bordeaux

Grand cru classé de Bordeaux
Vintage guide - SoDivin

Vintage guide

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The F.A.Q

Are 1985 wines still good to drink today?

Absolutely, 1985 vintage wines are still very good to drink today and some are even reaching their peak. Considered a great vintage in France, particularly for 1985 Bordeaux and many 1985 red wines, this year produced wines with excellent ageing potential.

To fully appreciate a 1985 wine, proper storage is essential. It is also crucial that the wine level is correct to ensure that the wine has not undergone premature oxidation.

Is 1985 a good vintage?

The 1985 vintage is unanimously recognized as a very good vintage in France, particularly for red wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy. Often underestimated compared to other famous years, it nevertheless produced 1985 wines of exceptional quality and remarkable longevity.

In Bordeaux 1985, ideal weather conditions allowed the grapes to reach optimal maturity, producing elegant and complex 1985 fine wines. Many 1985 classified growths are still magnificent today. Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhône also produced superb 1985 wines.

What are the best wines from 1985?

The 1985 vintage is considered an excellent year for many French wines, particularly the red wines from Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley, as well as certain champagnes. It is characterized by rich, well-balanced wines with good ageing potential.

Among the best wines from 1985, you can find:

These wines, although rare and often expensive, represent the pinnacle of the 1985 vintage and are collector's bottles for wine enthusiasts.

Vintage 1985: immediate charm and longevity of the great reds

The 1985 vintage tells a story of contrasts. A glacial winter, the coldest since 1956, damaged the vineyards in January, before a clement growing season and above all a long, dry and sunny autumn brought healthy grapes to fine ripeness. The result is a very recognisable profile: supple and perfumed reds, seductive from their youth, with the best now drinking in a fully open phase. While Bordeaux produced wines of rare elegance, it is above all the reds from Burgundy and the northern Rhône Valley that elevate 1985 to the rank of great years. The downside of this weather: in Sauternes, the dry autumn prevented botrytis, leaving the sweet wines in the background.

Bordeaux 1985 — Pomerol and the Right Bank take the lead

In Bordeaux, 1985 is first and foremost the year of Merlot. The January frost hit the Right Bank harder, but the mild summer and dry, bright autumn brought the variety to ideal ripeness, giving Pomerol and Saint-Émilion fleshy, velvety wines. On the Left Bank, Cabernet Sauvignon ripened with greater difficulty: the Médoc and Pessac-Léognan produced elegant, rounded and perfumed wines that favour finesse over power. It is a consistent vintage, where success is evident at every level of the hierarchy, from premiers crus to well-made crus bourgeois.

In Pomerol, the range spans from the truffle-laced richness of the great crus to more accessible wines, while Saint-Émilion produces thoroughbred bottles: Château Canon plays on finesse from its limestone soils and Château Angélus unfolds a fleshier, more spiced character. On the Left Bank, Pauillac lines up wines of great stature, with Château Lynch Bages illustrating its consistency, and Saint-Estèphe does particularly well this year, as shown by Château Calon Ségur and its classic framework of blackcurrant and cedar. Behind these benchmark wines, the Médoc premiers crus and the great names of the Right Bank confirm the fine overall quality of 1985 in Bordeaux.

Sauternes 1985 — a sweet wine in half-measures, due to lack of botrytis

Sauternes is the counterpoint of the year. The month of September, radiant and dry, delighted the red wine producers but deprived the Sauternes and Barsac wines of the humid mist needed for noble rot. Botrytis developed only marginally, giving fresh and fruity wines but with less richness in sweetness, far from the concentration of the great neighbouring sweet wine vintages such as 1988, 1989 or 1990. It is a vigneron's vintage, where only rigorous selection at harvest allowed fine bottles to be produced.

The most demanding estates managed to work with these difficult conditions. Château Suduiraut, in Preignac, produces a fine and balanced sweet wine, leaning more towards freshness than power, while Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey is among the rare crus to have revealed a true botrytis character. These are Sauternes to choose for their elegance and digestibility, rather than for the opulence expected of a great sweet wine.

Burgundy 1985 — suave and complete reds, at the pinnacle of the 1980s

Red Burgundy stands here as one of its finest vintages of the decade. The same January frost destroyed vines in frost-prone hollows, but a hot summer and a dry September brought Pinot Noir to full ripeness with generous yields. The wines are suave, rounded and seductive, carried by ripe flesh and moderate acidity that give them immediate charm without sacrificing balance. Long suspected of lacking staying power, well-kept grand crus have dispelled those fears and are still showing in remarkable form today.

The Côte de Nuits concentrates the finest successes. Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé in Chambolle-Musigny produces a Musigny of rare depth and length, while Gros Frère et Sœur unfolds the generosity of its Grands Echezeaux in Vosne-Romanée. At Richebourg, the Remoissenet house illustrates the breadth of the vintage across the great Vosne climats, while in the Côte Chalonnaise, Honoré Lavigne offers a more accessible and fruity interpretation of the year at Mercurey.

Rhône Valley 1985 — Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie in full splendour

In the northern Rhône Valley, 1985 is a year of fullness. Syrah benefited from full and even ripeness, producing rich, generous and charming wines with a silky texture and deep dark fruit. Less tense than some classic vintages, they win over with their roundness and spiced length, with a proven ageing ability in the finest cuvées of Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie. The southern part of the valley also succeeded, on a sunny and generous register.

At Hermitage, Paul Jaboulet Aîné La Chapelle embodies this Rhône maturity, with a profile of ripe fruit, spices and smoky notes that expresses itself fully today. In Côte-Rôtie, Domaine Jasmin produces a more delicate and perfumed wine, true to the floral finesse of the appellation. These two bottles reveal the dual personality of the northern Rhône in 1985, combining mellowed power with aromatic elegance.

Loire and great wines from elsewhere — the pleasant surprises of 1985

Beyond the great red wine regions, 1985 holds a few singular bottles. In the Val de Loire, the Coulée de Serrant by Nicolas Joly, a Savennières monopole farmed biodynamically, offers a dry Chenin Blanc of great ageing potential, taut and complex, today patinated with notes of quince, honey and dried fruits. It is one of the rare dry white French wines capable of spanning the decades, much like the finest age-worthy wines of the variety.

The vintage also shines beyond France. Porto Santos Junior Vintage 1985, from one of the great declarations of the year in the Douro, offers a single-vintage port, rich and fruity, with a very long ageing potential. In Spain, Vega Sicilia Unico 1985, aged for a long time before its release, ranks among the greatest wines of the Ribera del Duero and illustrates the international dimension of an age-worthy selection.

Find your 1985 wine at SoDivin

Choosing a 1985 wine from SoDivin means accessing aged bottles selected for their provenance, level and tasting potential. As a specialist in old vintages, the house brings together for this year the great reds from the Right Bank and the Médoc, a selection of Burgundy crus, the key references from the northern Rhône and a few age-worthy curiosities from the Loire, the Douro and Spain. Whether you are looking for a seductive red to open tonight or a birth-year bottle to give as a gift, our SoDivin Vintage Guide helps you identify the most accomplished appellations of 1985. Same-day dispatch before 2pm, secure packaging and systematic authentication complete every order.

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