Probably Gonna Wish I Hadn't Posted This....

[stevebody]

Yeah, my gripe here was with the buying process, aside from the cynicism of the
%$#@##! Frogs who, for generations, have traded off our awe of their best wines when pedalling their lesser ones.

I'm not suggesting that anyone NOT buy the 2000. All I'm saying is that, despite the unanimity of opinion of the Spectator, RP, Tanzer, et al, I've run into a lot of average Joes who don't agree and that sort of opinion should be weighed into the mix on judging a vintage of anything. Opinions of people who actually BUY Bordeaux - instead of having it shipped to them gratis for review -are very telling and those folks I've talked with, some of whom have truly MASSIVE collections of Bordeaux, mostly don't think the 2000 is all that hot. In the final analysis, what will determine the $ucce$$ of this vintage is whether people BUY it or not. I misattributed the quote from the Spectator about Bordeaux becoming passe. It was Matt Kramer, not James Laube. But the sentiment is the same: Tons of my customers are starting to stand less in awe of Bordeaux and more in avid pursuit of Barolo, Barbaresco, high-end Cabs, Grange, Hermitage and Cote Rotie, and other, more adventurous wines. There WILL come a time when the Bordeaux producers may wish they had cared more about making their wines more immediately decipherable and less about their own vaunted market stature. French vintners who dare to espouse such thoughts are routinely villified as traitors to France but their voices surface from time to time, anyway. I'm not the only one who sees Bordeaux futures as only a marginally acceptable risk and the numbers are growing.