The guide to the best wines of the 2000 vintage
Are you looking for a wine from 2000 to mark an important date or celebrate a birthday, the 20th birthday of a loved one for example? The 2000 vintage offers excellent wines for ageing that have kept very well in recent years. La Bouteille Dorée offers you this little guide to help you find the bottle of 2000 that will really please its recipient.
Bordeaux 2000
Apart from the superb 1990 vintage, the 90s were not kind to the Bordeaux vineyards, even if the second half of the decade was rather better. In Bordeaux, a hot wet spring and an early summer created difficult conditions for the vineyard (mildew) but fortunately, from mid-July, summer set in with sun and heat for more than 8 weeks, and the rains at the end of September were rather beneficial. This is how the 2000 vintage arrives with great promises: beyond the symbolism of the calendar, it offers the best wines of the Médoc, in Margaux, Saint-Julien and Pauillac, and of the Graves since 1990 and in Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, it is also an excellent vintage comparable to 1998 although perhaps a little less opulent. The 2000 vintage was a little less successful for the sweet whites of Sauternes and Barsac due to conditions that were not favourable to botrytis and we therefore preferred 1998 or the superb 2001 vintage.
Burgundy 2000
The Burgundian vineyard flowered early in 2000. The summer was up and down with coolness and humidity in July and the appearance of mildew, heat in August, cold again at the beginning of September and the heat that returned afterwards. The red wines of the Côte-de-Nuits fare better, but in general, the low level of acidity does not allow for a long shelf life, with the exception of the best grands crus which have been able to set up a rigorous selection of the grapes. These conditions were a little more favourable for Chardonnay with very good successes in the north in Chablis and in the south in the Mâconnais.
Rhône 2000
The Rhône Valley also experienced erratic weather conditions in 2000: in the north, Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage produced good red wines although less rich than the 3 previous vintages, while the white wines of Condrieu were a great success. It is in the south, in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, that we find the best red wines of the Rhône, at the level of the exceptional 1998 vintage.
If there is one wine sublimated by the symbolism of the year 2000, it is Champagne. In reality, the 2000 vintage gave very good champagnes and this although the summer conditions, as elsewhere in the vineyards of northern France, were difficult. It was the superb conditions that prevailed during the harvest that allowed the grapes to ripen very well and to achieve good levels of acidity. A vintage comparable to 1998 and 1999.
Alsace 2000
After several sometimes difficult years, Alsatian winemakers have found their smiles again with the 2000 vintage. The health of the grapes was perfect and a sunny and dry month of October favoured very good ripening, especially for Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. The other grape varieties, Gewurztraminer and Riesling in the lead, have a beautiful freshness typical of the vintage. The morning fog allowed the production of many Vendanges Tardives and Sélections de Grains Nobles with great ageing potential.
Other successes of 2000
Among the great successes of the 2000 wines, we can note:
- Elsewhere in France: the great natural sweet red wines of Roussillon, Maury and Rivesaltes.
- In Italy: in Piedmont, a warm spring, a wet July, extreme temperatures in August and hailstorms at the end of the month led to a reduced harvest but with very concentrated musts and good acidity, and the wines of Barolo and Barbaresco, although rare, are very successful. It was more difficult for Tuscan wines with some drought followed by storms and early harvests. The wines, rather supple and round in their youth, offer a more limited longevity in Chianti but the wines of Montepulciano are excellent.
Find all the bottles of 2000 currently on sale
Find all the bottles of 2000 currently on sale at La Bouteille Dorée. All these wines from 2000 are in stock in our cellars and can be delivered in 24 hours throughout France and even during the day in Paris. If you are looking for a particular bottle in the 2000 vintage, do not hesitate to contact us at info@labouteilledoree.com or at 01.46.22.29.79.
