The 1940s

A bottle from the 1940s is older than nearly everyone who will be in the room when it is opened. Someone born in 1946 turns eighty in 2026. A marriage that began in 1946 has now run eighty years. Those are numbers a card struggles with.

The decade holds two of the most argued-over vintages in Bordeaux. 1945 came from a frost-hit, tiny crop and produced wines of extraordinary concentration; 1947 gave the right bank its legend. 1949 is the quieter third, and the better value for it. Beyond Bordeaux there is vintage Port, declared in 1945 and by some houses in 1947 and 1948, and there is Armagnac, distilled every autumn and therefore covering the years the wine books ignore.

Everything from before 1990 is sold as a collectible item. We will not promise you that a wine of eighty is still good to drink, and we would rather say so plainly than bury it in small print. What we do check, before the bottle ships, is the fill level, the capsule, the label and where the bottle has been. Delivery runs to 7 to 10 working days from the point we confirm the year. If you would like photographs of the actual bottle beforehand, write to info@anno.wine and ask.