Vintage Weather
1971 across the wine world
Every region on record for 1971, read the same way: temperature, rain, harvest timing, and the events that shaped the season.
Northern hemisphere
A cold, wet flowering slashed yields, concentrating an elegant, very good vintage.
Hail-hit reds but a sublime September made concentrated, ageworthy whites.
Frost and hail nearly wrecked it, but a hot September saved elegant wine.
Rain hurt flowering, but long balanced ripening made the best wines since 1959.
Hail cut yields but a hot summer and dry October built huge depth.
Southern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere: the vintage year is the harvest year, so the growing season began in the previous calendar year (spring in September to October, harvest in February to April of the vintage year).
Warm, dry conditions produced Max Schubert's favorite Grange vintage.