Aging wines?

[sharon001]

I am perplexed about how long to wait before drinking wines. I am more or less up on "smaller" French wines (Loire valley or Languedoc and things like that), but recently I've been trying to tackle Burgundies, and there, I'm at a loss. I bought a Volnay 1er Cru 2000, but I'm not sure if I should drink it yet! What is the optimal aging for a good burgundy? (Which reminds me, too, that recently at a lunch in Paris, an older friend served us a 2000 Pauillac from Château Haut-Bages Libéral and when I told a wine-knowledgeable friend, she said, "Already?" And here I was thinking 2000 was already pretty good to go...)

How long do you have to wait for these wines?