Vintage Weather

1981 across the wine world

Every region on record for 1981, read the same way: temperature, rain, harvest timing, and the events that shaped the season.

Temperature
Cold → Hot
Bordeaux

Warm · Harvest rain

A hot, dry summer promised greatness, but September rain gave lighter wines.

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Rhône Valley

Average · Harvest rain

Rain before harvest hurt the north; heat and drought favored the south.

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Rioja

Warm

A selective, excellent year that built intense, deeply colored, age-worthy wines.

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