1976 Wine and Port Vintage
Vintage Summary and Recommendations: Welcome to Vintage Wine and Port's 1976 wine page. Read on for our summary of the 1976 vintage, our top recommendations and region reports. Scroll down to see all of our wines currently available. If you cannot find what you are looking for please call us on 01425 837177 or Contact Us. We would love to help you with your wine choice!
The 1976 vintage was, for much of the wine world, a mixed bag. For France, the vintage was fairly good with Bordeaux, Sauternes, Burgundy and the Rhône Valley all enjoying a reasonably good year, while the year for Champagne, the Loire and Alsace was excellent. Italy endured a less than successful year while Spain, and Port had good but not great years. Any of these wines would make a fabulous 49 year old wine gift for an Anniversary or birthday.
Our Wine Expert currently recommends the following wines for this year:
This Year in History: Fun Fact: The first commercial Concorde flight takes off[6] from Heathrow Airport for Bahrain.
Eurovision Winner: UNITED KINGDOM with the song "Save Your Kisses For Me" by Brotherhood of Man
Top Grossing Movie: Rocky
Bordeaux: 1976 wines still offer delightful, attractive drinking if they have been well stored. The wines are characterised as soft-bodied, with low acidity levels.
Rain during the harvest that followed the long hot summer of 1976 tarnished what could have been the vintage of the decade. Much to general surprise, the 1976 vintage although mature on release has maintained its maturity to date.
Italian: A large crop was produced, but the 1976 wines lacked the ripeness and longevity of the preceding vintage. Although the wines will not improve further with age, they are still very drinkable - Barolo or Amarone being the most likely to offer a great experience.
Portugal: Following the driest winter on record there was a total drought throughout the summer, until the end of August. This resulted in a very low production, however those ports that were produced are exceptionally concentrated and full-bodied. They lack a little freshness but this is understandable given the dry conditions. There are very few bottle aged ports available but the Colheita ports (barrel aged) from this year are excellent.
Spain: A good year that produced good quantities of Rioja. Gran Reserva made the annual average of 7%.
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109 products found.
Chateau Belgrave, 1976
Haut-Medoc, 5th Growth Classification
1976 Château Belgrave – A Classic Bordeaux from a Warm Vintage
The 1976 Château Belgrave comes from a significant vintage in Bordeaux, marked by an exceptionally hot and dry summer that led to an early harvest. As a fifth-growth estate in the Haut-Médoc, Château Belgrave is known for producing elegant and structured wines, blending Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from its well-draining gravel soils. This vintage initially showcased ripe fruit and soft tannins, but with time, it has evolved into a more delicate and mature expression of Bordeaux.
After nearly 50 years, the 1976 vintage has likely developed complex tertiary aromas of dried fruit, leather, tobacco, cedar, and earthy undertones. …
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Price: £79.95
Stock: Out of Stock
Chateau Doisy-Vedrines, 1976
Barsac
Sweet White Wine
Doisy-Védrines is the largest of the three Doisy vineyards in Barsac (the other two are Doisy-Daëne and Doisy-Dubroca) that started to achieve acclaim in the early 19th century and was named a Second Growth in the Classicfication of 1955. This is a vintage that produced hard, firm wines even in Sauternes, wines that required decades of cellaring.
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Price: £119.00
Stock: Out of Stock
Chateau la Tour de By, 1976
Medoc, Cru Bourgeois- TC
Château Tour de By is a respected Médoc estate producing classic claret with Cabernet-led structure. The 1976 Bordeaux vintage was marked by extreme summer heat, giving ripe fruit but shorter-lived wines compared to great years.
Garnet with a brick rim. Aromas of dried cassis, cedar, leather, and earthy notes. Palate is light, soft, and fully resolved, with gentle spice and a fading but elegant finish. More for appreciation of its age than power.
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Price: £69.95
Stock: Out of Stock
Chateauneuf du Pape, 1976
Domaine du Grand Tunel - E. Jeune
An outstanding wine still with a deep red colour. This has really strong bouquet with lovely packing in it; there is charm in the soft red fruits, but power and depth in behind, via some tobacco and rum: all comes in a silken air. This is rich on the palate, backed by good structure and tannin to keep it in shape. Very good length.
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Price: £149.00
Stock: Out of Stock
Hugel, 1976
Vendange Tardive Riesling, Alsace
Off Dry White Wine
This 1976 wine was made from overripe grapes that were picked well after the classic vintage and in the greatest years only. The action of noble rot (botrytis cinerea) gave them an almost unlimited ability to age. They are part of the elite of the greatest wines in France.
Produced from over-ripened grapes in a selection of the oldest plots of the Hugel estate in the heart of the grand cru Schoenenbourg in Alsace. This fantastic historical terroir has been almost exclusively devoted to Riesling for centuries.
Tasting Notes Deep golden. Musty, mushroomy first impression, but my god, this wine was the definition of resilience-it just kept coming and coming for the entire 2 hours that we savored it. …
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Price: £219.00
Stock: Out of Stock
Merlot, 1976
G. Ferlat
Fine ruby red colour with slight orange shade with ageing. Full fragance, heavy and enduring bouquet. Moderate dry with elegant bitter finish, robust and full-bodied
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Price: £69.00
Stock: Out of Stock
Merlot, 1976
Cantina Prod. Vini del Collio
Very forward nose of leather and cherries, liquorice wild strawberries, ripe plums and pencil .The palate is very nice balance of sweet fruit and acidity.
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Price: £59.00
Stock: Out of Stock
Taylor Fladgate, 1976
Taylors Vargellas Single Quinta Vintage Port
The impressive 1976 Vargellas is a 50% Opague mature mahogany colour as befits this hot vintage. lots of spice on the nose which is full of cedar wood and plums. on the palate the wine is very attractive. Full bodied, full flavoured with masses of dried fruit. Very tasty. Big aftertaste and a long, full finish. Very, very impressive wine.
Learn more about Taylor’s
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Price: £245.00
Stock: Out of Stock
Valtellina, 1976
Perlavilla - Tona
Valtellina is one of Italy’s most dramatic wine regions, located in Lombardy, the vineyards are located on steep mountains. The principal grape variety is Chiavennasca (the local name for Piedmont’s Nebbiolo and an Italian grape varietal that has been cultivated since medieval times here). The DOCG wines are generally comprised of at least 90% Chiavennasca and then blended with other quality local grapes like Brugnola, Rossola, Pignola. Then there is a DOC Valtellina Rosso (also called Rosso di Valtellina DOC) which requires at least 80% of the blend be Chiavennasca and does not have minimum ageing requirements. …
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Price: £59.00
Stock: Out of Stock