Moreintelligentlife.com is the website of Intelligent Life magazine. Articles about Arts, Lifestyle, Travels, and Ideas

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 »

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.