The vintage

1986

Halley's year, and a wall of tannin

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The 1986 vintage, rated

Halley's year, and a wall of tannin

In 2026 a bottle from 1986 marks a 40th birthday or anniversary

The vintage

Excellent · 4/5

A great Cabernet year in the Médoc: a large crop of thick-skinned fruit picked in fine weather, giving wines of formidable tannin that took twenty-five years to come round and are only now turning generous. The Right Bank was much less successful. Sauternes was superb, the first of four fine years in a row. Piedmont and Champagne were ordinary, and no Port was declared.

What we would buy, and why

Stay on the Left Bank. Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe made the wines of the vintage and they still have years in them. These are serious, structured bottles rather than charmers, so if the recipient likes soft or sweet wine, buy the Sauternes instead. Decant a 1986 Médoc a good hour before pouring. Around €200 to €400 buys a very good classed growth; the famous names run considerably higher.

1986 in the world

Halley's Comet came round in the spring, as it does roughly every seventy-six years, and will not be back until 2061. Anyone born in 1986 shared their first months with it. Top Gun and Maradona's World Cup filled the rest of the year.

Best bets for 1986

  • Château Mouton Rothschild 1986, the wine of the vintage, for the top of a budget
  • Château Lynch-Bages or Pichon-Baron 1986 for Pauillac at a sensible price
  • Cos d'Estournel 1986 for Saint-Estèphe with a little more flesh on it
  • Château Rieussec or Coutet 1986 Sauternes, a superb botrytis year

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

Real people, not a chatbot

Ask a person about this year

The people who answer are the same people who check and pack the bottles. Ask for photographs, a condition report or advice on a year and you get a straight answer from the ANNO team, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00 CET.