Vintage 1989 Wines or Spirits?
 

Well.. Within the next couple of months, I'll be having my 21st birthday and is wondering about any recommendations on what wines, champagnes, spirits, or other liquors that would suit nicely coming from the year 1989 that might come from FTers.

I was just a bit curious since the original wine bottle that my dad bought for me when I was born was spoiled a couple years back.. It was an 1989 Australian Sauvignon Blanc or along that line.

Would a 1989 Barolo do the trick? didn't catch the name of the producing winery but it was an Italian wine. Any inputs or suggestions would be lovely along with where to purchase it.. Preferably somewhere around my area in OR, and as you may be able to tell.. I'm a freshman if it comes to selecting wines.

Thanks in advance for all the help I can get..

P.S: If 1989 isn't a good year to pick up vintage wines, I was thinking of a 1960 Dom Perignon... :)

an 89 barolo or barbaresco would be a great choice. it was one of the finest piedmont years. the wines are not cheap and not readily available. you will probably have to buy one from CA,CO, or NY,NJ and have it shipped.

Washington state had a very good year in reds in 89. the prices never reached proper level as the CA 89's were really bad, and people presumed the 89 washington wines were also bad.

there is 1989 Oregon Pinot noir out there. they should be easier for you to acquire. contact the vineyard. i do not know who made good pinot in 89(it was not a great year), and 21 is very old for a west coast pinot.

do this search for 1989 wines in OR

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/-/1989/usa-or

While there are some expensive single malts anda few Bourbon type whisk(e)ys claimed as "aged in the cask" for 20 years, I know of none marketed as "21 year old booze".

Most brandies, even the higher end cognacs, are often "solera" type blendings of distillates of different years of production.

Champagne? Little of it is marketed as "Vintage".

I suppose you could look for a MacAllan 20 on the grounds that it has been in the bottle for a few months and may have come off the still in '89.

Seems a terrible thing though, spending big money on a product which your palate would be unlikely to appreciate.... Personally, were I to be nearing 21 myself, I would search for an accommodating near-21 year old young woman, country of origin unimportant other than for her to be culturally conditioned to enthusiastically engage in a variety of once-frowned upon varietal exercises, that we might "ring in" our coming of age together (accompanied by appropriate but non-vintage liquid refreshment).

Sauvignon blanc doesn't really improve much with bottle age, and it's certainly not meant to last 15 years from vintage. A good cabernet sauvignon would last that long without trouble.

Even if 1989 was not a great year in California, the best producers still turn out fine wines in bad years weather-wise. I had a 1989 Spottswoode (cabernet sauvignon) within the last couple of years and it was pretty good. Not as good as the 1990 I had around the same time, but certainly drinkable.

I'd suggest getting something you're already a tad familiar with, so that you'll appreciate the age. If you don't drink big Italian wines very much, the best bottle from a shining year may be lost on you (as it would be on me). Same for big Cal cabs. Same for aged scotch. Same for anything, I imagine.

FWIW, 1989 was a very good year in Bordeaux, and those wines should be ready to drink now, though they'll continue to age well.

1989 was a decent vintage for Champagne.

Since the OP is based in Portland, Oregon (also known as Beervana) I'm going to suggest contacting a store there named Belmont Station and asking if they have or can get something special in the way of aged beers. Off the top of my head I'd suggest the 1989 Thomas Hardy Ale or J.W. Lee's Harvest Ale from the U.K. or that year's Bigfoot barleywine from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. But the staff at Belmont Station can probably give you better advice that takes into account what they have or can obtain.

Thanks guys for all your suggestions and comments! :)

slawecki, thanks for the link and have looked at several of them, and found a few interesting ones to look at.

TMOliver, I'm not too fond of strong stuff actually and your comment about doing something else piqued my curiousity quite a bit :). The liquor isn't for me to drink, but to keep until I reach the age when I can appreciate the fine liquors more. Although OT, I'm not at all good with the ladies.. :p

MegatopLover, you've answered the lingering question why the bottle spoiled, and thanks again for your suggestion. What would you recommend for recent wine products that is good and not too expensive? and what is a good bottle of 1989 liquor to keep?

greggwiggins, there is one unfortunate thing in my life.. I'm allergic to beers and perhaps to hops. I do appreciate the suggestion, but I'm afraid beers are out of the question.

Thanks again everyone!

1989 was a great year throughout Europe, but not in California. If you've got bucks to spend, Barolo, Barbaresco, Bordeaux, or Burgundy would be the way to go. But figure a minimum of $100 a bottle for a decent wine from that vintage, and they could easily run $500 or more for top notch wines from those regions.

In another direction, if you like sweet wines, a quick search on Wine-searcher turned up a bottle of Baumard Coteaux de Layon at Vinopolis in Portland for around $50. It's a sweet, high-acid chenin blanc from the Loire Valley that can age forever, and is great with desserts or certain cheeses. 1989 was also a great year for Sauternes, so you can look around for those too (there was a Rieussec at Garrison's in Portland), and Germany and Alsace had spectacular years, both in the sweeter and the drier wines.

One caveat about Red Burgundies- I have heard that a lot of the '89s have gone past their prime, and never really developed as many had thought when they first came out. No personal experience- just the notes of a couple of friends and some things I've read.

ETA: I forgot about Rhone wines. 1989 was fantastic for Chateauneuf du Pape and for Hermitage, and the former is usually fairly approachable in price.

Careful with this as bottles can sit on shelves for years. Besides, many whiskey's, including Macallan, do have some bottles that have their production date, same with smaller brandy distilleries, particularly Armagnac's.

As another poster mentioned 1989 was a decent champagne year so I would look for a bottle of Dom Perignon - for my 25th bday I bought a bottle of Dom from my birth year, it was my first sip of Dom and things have never been the same since and made that birthday very memorable. Vintage champagne is not produced every year so you're lucky enough to have that as an option. I've had Cristal and other more expensive champagnes since and don't like them as much as Dom, so much that I keep a few bottles in the basement at all times.

Definitely a very good year for champagne, but I don't think Moet made a Dom Perignon in 1989.

Check out this wine vintage chart from Robert Parker, the foremost American (and some might say global) authority on wines:

http://www.erobertparker.com/newsear...ageChart2.aspx

It sort of leads us to well-stored bottles (and that's important for a wine of this age!) of Champagne, French Southern Rhone, or Italian Barolo and/or Piedmonte.

What I would most suggest, though, is trying something local as Washington seemed to have a pretty good vintage in '89. My personal favorite new world cabernet, particularly with some age, is Quilceda Creek. I can't find any of that available on winesearcher from this vintage, but I do see some Leonetti. Better still, the best price on the Leonetti is showing at ... the Good Droppe in Portland, OR!

http://www.gooddropwineshoppe.com/re...244591272.html

Enjoy, and happy birthday.

D1andonlyDman, I've been keeping an eye on european liquors not as much as local. The Barolo I mentioned was priced at around $350, with other 'lesser' Barolo of the same year selling at around $200.

tomsundstrom, for some reason, you read my mind :). I do like sweet wines, and I do appreciate the suggestion, plus the price isn't too biggie. I'll have to look at your suggestions to see what I can come up with.. I'm hoping to stock 3-5 bottles of 1989 wines and champagnes (although as you said, there aren't any 1989 Doms that I can find..).

pkeung, Dom would've been a welcome addition to what I'd like to purchase. But referring to tomsundstrom, there may not be a vintage on that year, although I did find a 1960/65 Dom. There was also several Brut collections in one of the shops I went into, they have either a 1860 and 1895 or something before the turn of the century which is fascinating.

stemor, its really hard to me to get into local wines from the States since I'm not from the states and somehow looks far into europe in matters of liquors. I guess its just hard to pass through the stereotype in my head that american wines are inferior to those in europe. But I'd try and find maybe a bottle of the sweet ones and check out your links. I do thank you for the information + my birthday is within the next two month, but I thank you all the same.

It would've taken you a shorter amount of time to Google it to see that there was a 1989, than to write that incorrect post.

If you really want a 1989 champagne you need to go online and search, you will be hard pressed to find it in a store.

If you are looking at Brut's (means dry) I wouldn't even drink one of those from 1989, they are typically mid level champagne and not meant to be drank after such a long time.

Same with wines, you better double check what you're buying, even if they have been stored in ideal conditions there are only a few that are meant to be drank after such a long period of time. This isn't hard liquor that you can store forever.

Great chart, this confirms what I heard that Champagnes from 1989 were considered one of the best of the 1980's.

I lucked out as a few years back as I was buying bottles of 1996 Dom at a duty free store I frequented for US$99, I bought about 10 bottles that year and drank most them before the end of the following year. I'm saving 2 bottles for a really special occasion, or tempted to just sell them since I've gone through so many of that vintage anyway and they've been selling in the US$250-300 range... I should've bought more as the 1996 is considered possibly the best year of the century!