Anniversary Vintage Wines for 2025 from Arden Fine Wines.
The 2025 edition of “Anniversary Vintage Fine Wines” arrives – as it did in 2024 – at a time of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
Russia’s terrible war in Ukraine ground ahead, and the horrific conflict in the Middle East continued.
In Britain, there was a landslide General Election victory for the Labour Party under Keir Starmer, ending 14 years of Conservative government. Britain moved from the right to the left – and I don’t mean from Bordeaux’s Right Bank to the Left Bank.
On the other side of the of Atlantic, Donald Trump prevailed in his third presidential bid – after four indictments and one conviction.
France’s wine regions endured a year of frost, hail, and rain. The amount of wine produced was the lowest for many years, with price rises inevitable.
In happier news, the 2024 Paris Olympics dazzled the world. Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” – which actually began in 2023 – ended in December 2024, having grossed over $2 billion.
The world remains a troubled place (except perhaps for Palantir shareholders).
Nonetheless, let’s try and look to 2025 with optimism. Life becomes more bearable when you break bread and enjoy great wines with friends and family.
Vintages that end in “5” include some of the all-time greats.
2015 | 15 Rating
From 2015 to 1985, the “five” vintages were successful just about everywhere.
The only exception in 2015 was Argentina, where “El Niño” – a climate phenomenon that causes variations in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean – meant that much of the vintage was a write-off.
2005 | The Famous Five
An exceptional Bordeaux vintage, released at record high prices – though 2009 and 2010 went even higher.
1995 | Windows 95
Port was the only fine wine region not to produce excellent wines in 1995.
1985 | “Warwick, thou art worthy…”
In his scurrilous memoir The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort describes an evening when “the Duchess and I, along with Nadine’s mother, Suzanne, and the lovely Aunt Patricia, had already killed two bottles of Chateau (sic) Margaux 1985, and were deep into our third – despite the fact that we hadn’t ordered appetisers yet. But given the fact that Suzanne and Aunt Patricia were both half-Irish, their proclivity for all things alcoholic was to be expected.”
It’s a good Margaux but the outstanding wine of 1985 was (and is) Sassicaia, from the Tuscan coast.
My former colleague and old friend, the late Nicolas Belfrage (Master of Wine), tasted – actually, he probably drank – 1985 Sassicaia on a visit to the winery at Tenuta San Guido.
He described the wine as “remarkably youthful, in colour and in substance… There is a remarkable liveliness to the palate, quantities of rich sweet fruit, dense but smooth tannins. A wine of great elegance but even greater youthfulness, of which I noted, with some exaggeration, ‘seems made yesterday’ and ‘freshness is incredible’…”
I think that he liked it.
At Arden Fine Wines, a quirky bottle of 1985 claret came into our cellar in 2024.
The bottling of 1985 Warwick Castle Listrac-Médoc (sic) was done by Ulysse Cazabonne, founded in 1976.
This negociant (merchant) was taken over by Chanel in 1994 and maintains offices in Margaux, next to Chanel-owned Château Rauzan-Ségla.
The gold-black label of Warwick Castle 1985 was similar to the Margaux estates of Château Palmer (the label of which is actually very dark blue); Château Cantenac Brown; and Château d’Issan (which has crimson font).
I was told that the then Earl of Warwick (David Greville, 8th Earl of Warwick, fourth creation) was “part-owner of a Bordeaux wine estate”, though I have not been able to discover what estate.
1975 | A Sweet Year
Fifty-year olds with a sweet tooth can appreciate a great Sauternes vintage, with d’Yquem especially outstanding.
Is 1976 d’Yquem better than 1975? Well, it’s different…
The ’76 is an elegant, extrovert d’Yquem; the ’75 is richer and deeper.
The red wines of Bordeaux were less successful, though Petrus produced a dense, tannic wine that has endured.
Elegant, attractive, though rather lightweight Vintage Port was made in 1975.
1965 | Oh Dear…
Trigger Warning to 60-year olds looking for anniversary vintage wines for 2025…
The 1965 vintage produced hopelessly inadequate wines.
For example, Château Margaux attempted to salvage their 1965 by blending it with other vintages and releasing, for the first and only time, a non-vintage wine. It’s of historic interest but as a drink it’s execrable.
1955 | 55 Days at Peking
A marvellous Port vintage.
As in 1975, Sauternes was source of the best wines of Bordeaux. A very fine d’Yquem was produced.
The red Bordeaux wines were good, though lacking the density of the very best years.
1945 | Red Inferno
Oh, to be an 80-year old in 2025…
Coming at the end of the War, the “victory vintage” in 1945 was a wonderful symbol of peace, with marvellous wines made across Europe.
Such was the post-war reputation of wines of the 1945 vintage that the well-known wine connoisseur James Bond orders a bottle of Champagne Taittinger ’45 in Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel Casino Royale.
In Bordeaux, Château Mouton Rothschild was particularly brilliant and is now acclaimed as one of the greatest wines of all time.
Arden Fine Wines previously sold a bottle of this famed wine from the cellar of Faringdon House in Oxfordshire, England. It remained our highest single bottle transaction price – £10,000 + VAT – for quite a while, though that record was beaten (twice!) in 2024.
The most expensive bottle of wine ever sold is of the 1945 vintage: Romanée-Conti, of which only 608 bottles were made. A bottle sold for $558,000 at a New York auction in 2018.
If you’re 80 years old in 2025 – treat yourself, or ask your relatives nicely.
1935 and other ancient vintages
The 1935 Ports are lovely and bottles are potentially still good if they’ve been well cellared.
There’s nothing to be said about 1925. Bad luck, centurions.
The 1915 wartime vintage was made in difficult circumstances, though Burgundy made some nice wines.
No comment on 1905.
In the 19th century, 1865 was a good year for white Burgundy.
The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 resulted from the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III requested a classification system for France’s best Bordeaux wines that were to be on display for visitors from around the world. Brokers from the wine industry ranked the wines according to a château’s reputation and trading price, which at that time was directly related to quality – not necessarily the case now.
The oldest “five” vintage that I have found a reference to is 1815, which is mentioned in Thackeray’s 1855 novel The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family:
“Is not of very good family; was, in fact, an apothecary: married a woman with money, much older than himself, who does not like London, and stops at home at Hummingham, not much to the displeasure of Bagshot; gives every now and then nice little quiet dinners, which Mrs. Ridley cooks admirably, to exceedingly stupid jolly old Parliamentary fogies, who absorb, with much silence and cheerfulness, a vast quantity of wine. They have just begun to drink ‘24 claret now, that of ‘15 being scarce, and almost drunk up.”
Old Parliamentary fogies who absorb a vast quantity of wine? Thackeray unwittingly predicted the arrival of Nigel Farage as a Member of Parliament in 2024…
Arden Fine Wines recommendation for 2025
I conclude by suggesting that readers of this article forget Dry January (or dry whenever).
Give up social media instead.
The end of Anniversary Vintage Wines for 2025 from Arden Fine Wines.