Which Bordeaux vintages to drink now

„This is a pertinent question since bordeaux is the single most popular type of wine in so many collections, and good red and sweet white bordeaux is expressly designed to age. In fact one of the (very) few ways that the high price of young bordeaux can be justified is to argue that what is being hawked is potential, and that the wine will be so much better in 10 years or so. Conversely, it's arguably a waste to open most bottles of bordeaux costing more than £20 when they are less than five or six years old - unless you are French and genetically programmed to enjoy chewy young reds.

So, which vintages of red bordeaux are drinking well now? If I had my pick, I would head of course for 1990, 1982, 1961 and 1945 - but only if I knew exactly where they had come from, these being the vintages of choice for counterfeiters thanks to their high value. Although many of the super-ripe 2009s are rather delicious already, it's a waste to drink any of the grand ones at this early stage in their doubtless long lives - though do choose 2009 if confronted with basic Bordeaux Rouge.

The youngest vintage I would contemplate opening - say in a restaurant where I knew I was paying over the odds for every bottle - would be a representative from the relatively weak 2007 vintage. The 2006s have much further to go and the 2005s need a very long time. There is simply no point in even considering the great but tannic 2005 vintage for the moment.”