So, I've perused the pickings available at the beginning of April.  And my reply is that I'd be buying.  Buying everything in sight under $25 with a rating of 88 or better.  Buying, buying, BUYING!  

    This Parker guy, an acquaintance for over 25 years, has yet to lead us astray.  And his personal expertise lies in Bordeaux.  And he says, not that it's only a great vintage, but even more; that it is  "...the greatest vintage Bordeaux has ever produced." 

         Young, new collectors and old veterans alike: clean out a corner of that basement and BUY!  If you've already taken a position, BUY MORE!  You will not regret this decision, as the only regret likely is the bemoaning to be heard if one delays this action.  And there remains over 26 wines fitting this description of "88 or better", and another dozen+ if you push the value up another 5 or 10 bucks.  Astonishing, and something that we've NEVER witnessed in our 30+ years in the biz.  Great wines usually reside at the top, with a "lucky" winner or two in the bottom ranks, and they usually disappear quickly because of the surge in interest.  But in this year greatness abounds.  The lower ranks are full of seriously great wines.  And that's the reason for the abundance of choices still remaining.  That and Bob's having seen the light earlier than most and having acted on it. But they'll ALL be gone come the vernal equinox only a few months hence, of that you can be sure.    

    Buy, buy, BUY.  We're not likely to see a condition like this again. BUY!

  theWineSeller for the Staff @ Kreston's       

New Copy 10/20/01
We Said This Was Going To Be Fun...
 An Old Collector's Tip On "What to Do
About those 2000 Futures?"
or See What $1k Now and $1k @ Delivery Can Get You!!

It's no secret how I feel about this vintage.  It's just that it has come at a perfect time in my life.  For all of the reasons that I set out in this space a few months ago, and that appears below, I'm having some fun with it all.  Fun selling these wines to you, and fun stashing more and more of these away for my own enjoyment down the road.
    And because of the great demand that all but dried up my selections from a few months ago, I've revised those below to reflect wines that are currently in our stocks and available for purchase.  At least at the time of this writing at Oct. 20.
    And the market, as markets do, is marching along.  Talk about "pent-up" demand.  The demand for these wines has genuinely been like nothing we're ever experienced in the twenty years that we've been selling futures on Bordeaux.  Unreal.  And the prices are beginning to rise, in some cases, rather dramatically.  What was $600 on the first round, is climbing to $900 on subsequent tranches.  Not bad for those who took large positions in this first round.  But even at the increases, the values here can be astounding.  
    But that's for me to convince you of down the road.  For now, what we have left from the first tranche is still quite impressive, meaning that noone's missed the boat YET.  This morning there are still over 100 selections available from our original offering of 160 or so Chateaux, the most extensive in our history.  
    All that I've said below still holds.  Great Wines at Great Prices.  If you've been thinking about collecting, now is the time.

Originally Posted 2/01/01
    Not to blow my own horn, but I've been doing this for quite a while.  Since my first bottle of Cru Beaujolais and chunk of Jarlsberg cheese in '71 to be exact.  And been buying and selling Bordeaux futures since the 1980 vintage two decades ago.  And it brings me to the realization that I'm getting old.  Closer to the end of my career than to its beginning, those thousands of bottles of wine ago.   And in all of those vintages I've never told you what I'VE bought from any particular vintage's futures offerings.  And this year seems particularly ripe for such an exercise, because the why's of my choices will fit with collectors both at the start of their building of cellars, and for those like myself that are beginning to be conscious of frivolous spending as retirement looms on the not too distant horizon. 
    And as I've stated in this month's "Staff Picks," this vintage is going to be fun to sell and fun to drink.  For a great vintage is where wines of lesser stature shine.  Where the cru bourgeois and fifth growths achieve the stature of second and sometimes first growth wines.  Where scores of 88 on The Wine Advocate and The Wine Spectator's 100 point scales abound.  
    So for a guy who has had the privilege of drinking the finest wines the world has had to offer over the last 30 years, my palate is perfectly satisfied to pocket the money and take advantage of what nature has bestowed on me.   When I've got no one to impress but my well-educated palate.  
    So I've taken a good hard look at the 100 or so wines that make up the premier tranche of 2000 Bordeaux currently in our futures offer, and I've come up with an astounding array of wines for the budget AND quality conscious.  A cellar selection that gives a great quantity of wine for what seems like the prices of the '80's!  These are what I'm putting in my cellar.  And believe me, I can be picky when it comes to Bordeaux.  And I'm loving this to no end.

In Summary:  It totals just over $2k and it ends up being eleven cases of wine.  That's 11 cases of great Bordeaux from a variety of communes and a good mix of Merlot and / or Cabernet dominated wines.  All averaging scores of 87 or better.  And averaging but $15 a bottle!!  Astonishing!  And if I were younger, I'd be buying more.  But at 50, 11 cases of these beauties will keep me in great, special occasion drinking  well into my 60's as these babies mature.  And I'm a guy that lets them age, so I won't be getting into any of these until just this side of the turn of the decade.  That's in good storage at optimum temperature.  Because if I've learned anything, it's the joy that 10 years brings to the wine experience, and I've found that lesser wines in great vintages will go this distance and much more quite easily. As an example, I've only recently finished the last of '78 Jaboulet Parallele '45', a simple Cotes du Rhone that has given me incredible satisfaction over the last 12 years, having had the patience to wait 8 years before getting into my 60 bottles of this (then) $4 wine.  That Gerard Jaboulet was a friend certainly added to the wine's enjoyment, but this wine has stood as my stalwart example of the joys to be had from ordinary wine in exceptional vintages.  And I'm doing it again here with the 2000 Bordeaux.  I'll let these wines cook, and I'll love them right into my twilight.  Here they are:

Wine Selections Revised 10/20/01

Some of Joe's other Musings on these 2000 Bordeaux:
Only one thing on this old Wine Seller's mind...and that's 
BORDEAUX 2000...
The Vintage we've all been waiting for!!

 We're so excited, we can barely contain ourselves.  I'm talking, less than once in a decade excited!  I'm talking, not in the last 20 years excited!  It is that kind of vintage...

 But there's other factors at play here.  Big factors.  The confluence of time and destiny factors.  You see Bordeaux, and most of the French wine scene in general, has been going through a seemingly accelerated period of transition.  Read the "Boomers" are taking the reins.  And with this transition over the last decade incredible amounts of money has been pouring into needy estates.  Gone are the 500 and 1000 gallon wooden fermentation vats, some of which went back to World War I.  In has come stainless steel with temperature control.  The effect this one great change alone has had on the overall quality of the wines has been astounding.  But this new generation comes well schooled too.  Oenology at the University of Bordeaux thrives.  And these young (40's and 50's) turks are determined to express the individuality of their particular terroirs.  And succeed they have.  And given the grace of a great vintage's fruit, they have excelled tremendously.  We have been confirming it over and over.  Those coming from early tastings of this great vintage unanimously sing its praises.  As ROBERT PARKER published in his WINE ADVOCATE devoted to these 2000's :

        "Considering all appellations, the greatest vintage since 1990...given the superlative quality of many lesser known wines, and the new generation of superstars from satellite appellations such as Cotes de Castillon, Lalande de Pomerol, Cotes de Bourg, and even the Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux, frugal consumers could easily stock an entire cellar from these regions with sumptuous wines rated 88 and above that will retail for well under $ 20.00 a bottle. There are numerous terrific wines from these sectors as well as lower level St. Emilions, in addition to Fronsacs and Crus Bourgeois from the Medoc. This is the finest Bordeaux vintage since 1982 for wines with lesser pedigrees. Good hunting!". 

    And there is the challenge.  Great drinking over the next decade with wines of reasonable cost from this great vintage.  Get a look at the Bordeaux 2000 section.  Look at the number of wines in these great price categories.  Look at the names!  Oh Boy!  Stay tuned!!

We'll get back to focusing in on those "Under $10" gems next issue, but for now we're sharpening up our pencil and making our choices for these 2000's.  Gotta move quickly though, because demand will dry these wines up in only a few months, if not sooner, with the strength of the demand that we've been seeing.

     'Till then, pour one for Elwood and me!
                    Joe Woody