The 2000 vintage was much hyped. Everyone wanted a great wine for such a memorable year. Seemingly they were going to buy whatever. Thank heavens it turned out to be a fine vintage in Bordeaux. Indeed now as the wines are coming round it is being considered as an even better vintage than originally thought.

Bordeaux 2000 is the story of a vintage in two parts: after a warm winter and wet spring, the first half got off to a bad start. A sultry wet winter and the biggest mildew attack since the 1870 was only brought under control by a flash of heat in June. Then July, usually the powerhouse of any vintage, was overcast and cool. At the end of July, if this had been 30 years ago, the vintage would have been lost already.

The second half was a total turn-around, and, as the long, dry days of August and September progressed into harvest time, things got better.

Picking started around 20th September in ideal conditions but rain did arrive on the 24th and picking stopped. The rain only lasted twenty-four hours and was not the downpours of previous years. Many estates delayed picking immediately after rain and some held off until October and were rewarded by an Indian Summer which produced wines of gorgeous ripeness. Some growers picked in September and their wine just missed the boat, but were still of good quality. One of the keys to this vintage is recognising this in the wines.

Quoting Jancis Robinson who emailed me the other morning: “Last week I had the great pleasure of 'looking at' nearly 50 of the more significant red Bordeaux from the 2000 vintage now celebrating its tenth birthday. This is traditionally the time at which classical red bordeaux starts to come round and starts to provide good drinking.”

Quality abounds in all regions with many wines already very accessible but clearly with the potential to live on for another 20 years or more. Even though prices opened substantially higher than the 1999’s, most of the great wines have trebled in price since release.