By BoboChamp, November 11, 2003
other vintages : 1999 : 4 1998 : 5 1997 : 3 1996 : 4 1995 : 5 general note : 19.5 / 20 A myth!

By Trailside, May 19, 2003
If you're looking for the best place to purchase wine en primeur, Japan, bar none, outdoes any other country. I won't mention the leading vendor here--for it might reek of a sales pitch--but it certainly does a classy job of handling the orders (with respect to futures, online only) and getting the wine to the consumer. If you don't live in Japan, however, this advantage does not apply to you. All that aside, thanks to the reasonable price of the wine (about 166 dollars/bottle), a fellow en primeur friend and I decided to do an event probably not yet done too much here in Japan: a horizontal blind tasting of all Bordeaux's 2000 1st Growths and the highly rated 2000 Cheval Blanc. After ten minutes, my blood was wired with polyphenol and happiness, and it became increasingly difficult to distinguish one wine from the next. Aside from the Cheval Blanc, whose absence of Cabernet sauvignon gave itself away, the only truly salient feature that enabled one of the remaining wines to stand out from the rest, even after numerous tastings without spitting, was a much-needed presence of acidity which cut through the fat of such a cloying vintage. I thought Margaux, but I was wrong. It was the Haut Brion. By far the best balanced of the 5 First Growths, this Haut Brion will please even now (if you've got the courage to test it). But how well will it please from now? This is where the number of bottles purchased often dictates if or when we dare to taste such ambrosia. My advice: wait if you dare. The wine will indeed evolve (for the better) for God knows how many decades; but will you?