1985 Wine

1985 Wine

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The 1985 vintage opens with the coldest winter since 1956: the January frost damaged part of the vineyards, before a mild summer followed by a long, dry and luminous autumn slowly ripened perfectly healthy grapes. From this late season emerge wines of seduction — supple and perfumed, with melted tannins, charming in their youth while holding well in the cellar. The hierarchy is clear: in Bordeaux, Merlot carries the Right Bank, where Château La Conseillante unfolds the 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
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The FAQ

Are 1985 wines still good to drink today?

Absolutely, wines from the 1985 vintage 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 aging 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 experienced premature oxidation.

Is the 1985 vintage 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, giving birth to elegant and complex 1985 grand wines. Many 1985 classified growths are still magnificent today. Burgundy, Champagne, and the Rhône also offered superb 1985 wines.

What are the best wines from 1985?

The 1985 vintage is considered an excellent year for many French wines, particularly Bordeaux reds and Rhône Valley wines, as well as some champagnes. It is characterized by rich, balanced wines with good aging 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: the immediate charm and longevity of the great reds

The 1985 vintage tells a story of contrast. 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 led healthy grapes to fine ripeness. The result is a very recognisable profile: supple and perfumed reds, seductive from youth, whose finest examples can be enjoyed today in a fully blossomed 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 a great year. 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 above all the year of Merlot. The January frost hit the Right Bank harder, but the mild summer and the dry, bright autumn brought the grape to ideal ripeness, giving Pomerol and Saint-Émilion fleshy and velvety wines. On the Left Bank, Cabernet Sauvignon ripened with more difficulty: the Médoc and Pessac-Léognan deliver elegant, round and perfumed wines that favour finesse over power. It is a consistent vintage, where success can be seen at every level of the hierarchy, from the first growths to the well-made crus bourgeois.

In Pomerol, the range goes from the truffled flesh of the grands 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 and more spiced substance. On the Left Bank, Pauillac lines up wines of great distinction, with Château Lynch Bages illustrating its consistency, and Saint-Estèphe is particularly successful in this vintage, as shown by Château Calon Ségur and its classic framework of blackcurrant and cedar. Behind these benchmarks, the first growths of the Médoc and the great names of the Right Bank confirm the fine overall quality of 1985 in Bordeaux.

Sauternes 1985 — a muted sweet wine, for lack of botrytis

Sauternes is the counterpoint of the year. The month of September, radiant and dry, delighted the red wine makers but deprived Sauternes and Barsac of the humid mist necessary for noble rot. Botrytis developed only marginally, yielding 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 winemaker's vintage, where only a rigorous selection at harvest made it possible to produce fine bottles.

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

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

Red Burgundy holds here one of its finest vintages of the decade. The same January frost destroyed vines in frost-prone low-lying areas, but a hot summer and a dry September brought Pinot Noir to full ripeness, with generous yields. The wines are suave, round and seductive, carried by ripe flesh and moderate acidity that give them immediate charm without sacrificing balance. Long suspected of lacking structure, well-cellared grands crus have disproved these fears and still show remarkably well today.

The Côte de Nuits concentrates the finest achievements. 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 house of Remoissenet illustrates the breadth of the vintage across the grands crus of Vosne, while in the Côte Chalonnaise, Honoré Lavigne offers a more accessible and fruity reading of the year at Mercurey.

Rhône Valley 1985 — Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie at their fullest

In the northern Rhône Valley, 1985 is a year of fullness. Syrah benefited from full and even ripeness, yielding 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 spicy length, with a confirmed ageing potential on the finest cuvées from Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie. The southern part of the valley also succeeded in this year, on a sunny and generous register.

At Hermitage, Paul Jaboulet Aîné La Chapelle embodies this Rhône-valley maturity, on 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, faithful to the floral finesse of the appellation. These two bottles reveal the dual personality of the northern Rhône in 1985, between polished power and aromatic elegance.

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

Beyond the great red wine regions, 1985 yields 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 fruit. It is one of the rare dry French whites capable of spanning decades, in the tradition of the finest age-worthy wines from this grape 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 very long ageing potential. In Spain, Vega Sicilia Unico 1985, aged at length before 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, fill 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 benchmarks of 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 target the most accomplished appellations of 1985. Same-day dispatch before 2 pm, secure packaging and systematic authentication complete every order.

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