Ten Years On: The 2000 Vintage
The kick-off to the year 2000, marked by a dramatic firework display, a visual extravaganza the likes of which I have not seen replicated since (and I suspect I probably never will) was certainly a memorable one. Living very close to Liverpool at the time, I can still recall the sight of the city’s entire skyline illuminated by one multicoloured shower after another. Taking a look through the major events of the year that followed, the one that jumped out at me most was the UK fuel protests, perhaps because although it wasn’t an event of massive historical significance it was one that did at least directly impinge on my life. I remember a Monday-morning drive to my workplace, and the slight confusion at finding no fuel at the first three petrol stations I encountered. I gave up and returned home (where I had some spare fuel of my own). Was that really ten years ago? An entire country brought to a near standstill by a few half-hearted refinery protestors, the energy companies showing a remarkable lack of fortitude in breaking the ‘blockade’, a reflection of their own politico-financial agenda. It is a situation has recurred very recently in France, with a string of strikes, a response to some very unpopular pension reforms, producing some very similar fuel shortages. It hasn’t been without impact on the little world of wine; I have heard from both vignerons and travelling wine writers who have struggled there recently, in some cases setting out on journeys with no certainty that they would arrive at their destination. I remember that feeling!
France had no such concerns ten years ago though. Things were looking a little more rosy, not just politically but in the vineyards too, especially in Bordeaux. Look to France in this vintage and it is probably to this region that we should turn first, and so I must quickly dispel any hopes you may have that this report on my annual ten-year tasting will be some sort of Bordeaux masterclass. Although there are plenty of eligible bottles tucked away in the cellar, I have refrained from including all but a couple in this tasting. I know that many are happy to look at even the grandest of wines from Bordeaux at ten years of age, for instance the late Edmund Penning-Rowsell, who was renowned for his first growth dinners at which Jancis Robinson was a regular attendee. At this annual event Edmund and fellow diners would take their first tastes of Margaux, Lafite, Latour and so on, ten years after the vintage, but for my palate ten years of age is just too early for the majority of cru classé wines, especially in a grand vintage such as 2000 (and these tastings are about pleasure in my opinion, not early assessment). And so the majority of the wines in my cellar won’t be appearing on this site until I get around to producing my 2000 Bordeaux report, a job that has been on my “things to do” list for, well, about ten years actually.
