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Sorry for the heart-rending beginning, but when I started buying first-growth Bordeaux 30 years ago this month, Mouton 1970 was £80 a case and so-called "super seconds" such as Cos or Pichon-Lalande were around £45. It was possible in Paris to buy the greatest Bordeaux from the 1928 vintage for as little as £15 a bottle. I remember getting hold of a 1961 Ducru for £8 and wasting it on a snotty Frenchwoman who knew nothing about great wine. She wasn’t especially adept at life in general - a few years later she was sectioned for attacking her husband with an axe.)

The 1982 vintage put an end to this idyll. Opening prices for first growths hit £300 and for super seconds just under £100. John Armit shocked people by suggesting he would open Petrus '82 at £450 a case—nearly double the '81, though now, of course, it seems ridiculously reasonable, given that the '82 vintage sells for upwards of £35,000.

The 2005 opening prices also set new records. Most were unable to get their hands on first growths for less than £4,000 a case, and super seconds upwards of £800 to £1600. The first growths have nearly doubled while the super seconds have not really gone anywhere—further evidence that at this level wine buyers are either millionaires or billionaires.

There was some interesting gossip from a meal this week at The Square, one of London's greatest restaurants. One of the leading wine brokers gave a tenth-anniversary dinner for top clients, and invited Pierre Lurton, manager of Cheval Blanc and Yquem, as the wine provider.  read more »

Tuesday might have been the day of the government's mini-budget, or the start of the Frieze Art Fair, for some Londoners, but for me it was occasion of something far more personally significant—a master class in some of the world's greatest Burgundy, including three of the finest vintages of the past couple of decades. We all should know by now that great Burgundy is made in minuscule amounts compared with say, Bordeaux's Chateau Lafite, which regularly turns out 20,000 cases in a typical vintage. Musigny Vieilles Vignes, easily the equivalent of Lafite in the Burgundian world, produces less than a thousand cases in a good vintage. And that is their largest production. Their white Burgundy is produced in thimblefuls. There are only 100 cases of that and we drank half a case of it last night.

Since the death of Henri Jayer, (see my obit of him in The Independent), Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé is the only domaine that can be spoken of in the same breath as Romanée-Conti. Created in the mid-15th century, its 30 acres surround the original house and outbuildings, which have been lived in by descendants of the same owners since 1528.

Jean-Luc Pépin, the sales director, presented three flights of his tiny crops in the reception room of the Caledonian Club, an improbable establishment just opposite the Halkin hotel in Belgravia. Wine merchants Corney and Barrow, who hold the UK agency, had 50 clients all lined up at long tables facing the front like eager school children, complete with half a dozen Riedel glasses with little circular labels slipped over the stems advising of their wares. This was the first time the fabled 2005 vintage had been tasted outside of France—a generous gesture, given that Corney's allocation sold out months ago.

To describe the white wine as Bourgogne Blanc is about as useful as calling a short wheelbase Ferrari 250 GTO a car. The vines are sited on the sole location designated Musigny Blanc Grand Cru, but the Domaine says that, since the vines are only 15 years old on average, it should wait for a few more years before claiming that honour. The real problem with this wine is that it is so enjoyable now that I doubt if many bottles will last the requisite 10 to 15 years to let its potential shine through. The tannins are concealed under the beautifully balanced fruit while the overall effect is something like a cross between a great Corton-Charlemagne and a Chablis from Raveneau. Pépin mentioned there is also a Poire Wilhelm taste in the centre, which was a shorthand way of describing the immense depth and strength of the fruit.

The genuine modesty of the Domaine does not end there. Their Premier Cru Chambolle-Musigny is actually made entirely from vines on the actual Musigny estate, but again, at around 25 years old, the vines are considered too adolescent to qualify as the real thing. This must be the grandest "second wine" in existence with an amazing ski slope like plunge of tastes before emerging high in the air after liftoff (don't know any other way of describing the joy of this stuff).

The so-called straight village wine they produce (which typically includes some tiny amounts of neighbouring Premier Cru grapes too) was to me too much like raspberry juice compared to these other magnificent wines. I know this is unfair as I have tasted wonderful older ones. There is also 160 cases of Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Amoureuses, which is far more lacy and ethereal than the others. It, too, was extraordinary at this early juncture, but was obviously capable of far more expressiveness with time. After that, the Bonnes-Mares (400 cases) was a bit like a Page Three Sun bimbo—a massive hearty experience best left for those who like their pleasures straight up and down the wicket.

The pinnacle was the Musigny Vieilles Vignes 05 (900 cases). This was as powerful as the Bonnes-Mares but far more inchoate and slightly rambling—not because it was inferior in any way, but simply getting its act together, along with an undercurrent of tannins to help it on its long journey. The aftertaste went on for nearly a minute. Allen Meadows, a top Burgundy critic, reckons the 2005 to be on a par with the legendary 1990, 1949 or even the 1919. Getting hold of a bottle could be a bit tricky until it comes out on the grey market later this year as the original allocations went in hours.

After this amazing tasting, I was left worrying that SlavChavs, PlebCelebs and other boors would find the 05s so attractive now that they could easily be drunk up well before their prime, once they hit the three-star Michelin restaurants of this world.

The remainder of the evening was almost an anticlimax. This is of course ridiculous, given that we were tasting the 02s and 99s—also stellar vintages. Pépin said he had never before given a class with these three top vintages.

What made it so valuable is that by the end of the evening, with little in the way of nourishment save the occasional water biscuit, it was wonderful to be able to line up all three Vieilles Vignes or Bonnes-Mares or Premier Crus and just compare and contrast them. What became apparent to me at least was how much more I preferred the 02s to the 99s. To me the 99s suffered from a bit too much heat which gave the wines a slightly uniform tropical tinge, while the 02s had more black fruit (as opposed to red) and more centre.

Still, it is easy to fall flat on your face when you are dealing with wines that really shouldn't be approached until well into the next decade. I know how vital this is from opening a 2001 Villages de Vogue in September and finding it tasteless until it had been decanted for more than two hours. Even then, it was really only hinting at its potential.

I forgot to add that we were given as a special treat, an 88 Amoureuses at the end of the tasting. It certainly had great charm and delicacy but the problem is that when you have tasted sublime examples of wines, you tend to be harsh in your judgement of relatively light wine that will not vastly improve.

Overall, it was a true education for someone who until recently tended to feel that Burgundy was merely Mozart to Bordeaux's Bach. The next dilemma is to consider if the 05s will be showing their best in time for me to appreciate them, as, after the age of 80, ones taste buds begin to fade. I will simply have to take the chance—or spoil my greedy children.

We haven’t heard much about the state of the 07 vintage since the earlier reports about near continual rain from May to August, but the more honest insiders are basically saying it is a disaster for the growers.

It was the same all over France (except in the Northern Rhone) with Burgundy being hit by bad storms in the early summer and no miraculous months of hot weather to redress the stunted growing season.

The 06 Bordeaux vintage was saved somewhat by the heat in September and by drastic crop reduction by the top few score of chateaux, but fundamentally I believe that miraculous saved vintages and unashamed rained on ones suffer from trauma. I have yet to have any 98 left-bank wine that didn’t taste lean and mean.

The 2005 was truly as great as the pundits said. In fact, I predict that once the grander 05s are in bottle next April, it will be spoken of in the same breath as 61, except there is a lot more of it produced.

Despite this depressing latest news for the growers, drinkers and investors are not going to be too upset, especially because greedy Bordelaise producers refused to drastically reduce the 06 prices. (Anyone who was foolish enough to buy any 06 Bordeaux en primeur will probably have to wait until the following decade to see a return). Be warned that any time soon we will see reports of how 07 was saved by relatively benign weather around harvest time and that the great wine-makers have created really quite excellent wines given the prevailing conditions etc etc. Last time I looked at the weather in Bordeaux it said either thunder storms or unsettled weather. So ignore the lot of them and don’t bother buying anything en primeur next spring, even if the prices are down by a third or more.

Instead, remember there is the undervalued 04 to buy—and drink; the 03s for those who like New World power; and, quite soon, a huge range of minor 05s will be on the market, which will be great for the medium- to-long term.

My rule is that a £10 wine from an awesome vintage such as 2000 or 2005 will always outclass even a £100 wine from rubbish one such as 1991, 1992, 1993.

Going slightly further back in the current century, the 2001 Bordeaux vintage is being reappraised, as it was always in the shadow of the superb 2000. There are no bargains at the very very top, as the likes of Lafite have doubled in recent months but look out for non-first-growth 01—and 04—Graves and Pomerols, as most of them have yet to creep in price compared with 2000 and 2003.

Talking of 03, the one top wine that is not infanticide to enjoy right now is Domaine de Chevalier, a red Graves that is back on form. This is amazingly vigorous exciting stuff—and is still available at top brokers or merchants like Farr Vintners or Corney and Barrow for £200 a case in bond. And don’t forget virtually every other 2005 French vintage for extraordinary wines—I particularly adore top of the range Beaujolais such as Fleurie, Moulin á Vent and Brouilly for current drinking, while the minor white Burgundies are delicious too.