1954

What we would buy, and why

Buy the year, not the wine. A 1954 Bas-Armagnac at 300-550 euro is a genuinely good drink with the right number on it, which is more than can be said for any 1954 claret at any price. If someone offers a cheap bottle of 1954 Bordeaux with a beautiful label, that is precisely the trap - at this age the label is the least important thing on the bottle.

1954 in the world

On 6 May 1954 Roger Bannister ran a mile in three minutes 59.4 seconds on the Iffley Road track in Oxford, then collapsed into the arms of his friends. That July the last of Britain's wartime food rationing finally ended.

Best bets for 1954

• Bas-Armagnac 1954 from Laberdolive, Delord or Baron de Sigognac, 300-550 euro
• A 1954 colheita or vintage Madeira, still fresh and likely to stay that way for another fifty years
• Vintage Cognac 1954, only where the house itself can document the year
• If it must be still wine, a mid-fifties Rioja Gran Reserva - Spain had a kinder decade than France

How we grade a bottle

Fill level, label, capsule and cork, then provenance. Every bottle is checked by hand by people who have handled thousands of old bottles, and we write down the flaws as well as the good news. What the fill levels mean · How to choose a birth-year wine