Rumours had been emanating from Bordeaux since the first Merlot grape was plucked from the vine back in mid September. Whispers from some quarters, great proclamations from others, all unanimous that 2000 was going to be something quite special.The weather leading up to the harvest had been perfect and from mid-July to mid-September there was virtually no rain at all. The fine weather continued through to the end of the Cabernet Sauvignon harvest in mid-October with only one day of rain to refresh the vines and momentarily worry the vignerons.

Across the board the wines boast ripe succulent fruit and fine, firm, tannins, with many displaying the structure, depth and length that mark out truly great claret. The wonderful late summer weather seems to have truly, great claret. The wonderful late summer weather seems to have given the Médoc the edge, producing marginally more complex wines. Nevertheleless the best of St. Emilion and Pomerol have provided some of the very finest wines of the whole vintage.