Note to non-Brits: do check out the Burgundy merchants cited below and those in my special Burgundy 2000 feature. I have noticed that prices offered in Britain tend to be very much keener than those in the US. It could be worth buying wine here in London, storing it in bond and having it shipped only when you deem it ready to drink. Mind you, it could be that the much softer wine market conditions in the US will bring prices down on that side of the Atlantic this year.
Many more wine merchants are making offers of Burgundy 2000 than those cited in my detailed notes. Check out in particular Handford of London, W11 (tel 020 7221 9614 web www.handford-wine.demon.co.uk); Lay & Wheeler of Colchester (tel 01206 764446); Robert Rolls of London, EC1 (tel 020 7606 1166); and, towards the end of February, Corney & Barrow of London, EC1 (tel 020 7539 3200 web www.corneyandbarrow.com).
That excellent Irish wine merchant James Nicholson of Crossgar, Northern Ireland (www.jnwine.com) has a sale on, 2-28 February. Best bargain looks to me the Nyetimber, England's best wine by far and a very fair substitute for champagne. They usually charge £18.99 a bottle, I would happily pay £15.99 for it, but in the sale both Classic and Blanc de Blanc Cuvées of 1993 have been knocked down to £9.99. There are also good reductions on Ridge Mataro, Petite Sirah and Merlot, on the first-class Comte Cathare Muscat de St Jean de Minervois 2000 (now just £4.99 for 50cl) and Muri Veteres Jumilla 2000 is just £3.99. I have not tasted this last wine, but have never known Nicholson to buy rubbish.
Majestic Wine Warehouses have acquired a parcel of wines from Alejandro Fernandez of Pesquera who put the modern incarnation of Ribera del Duero on the map (he is the one featured in our BBC2 television series, the 'Wine Course', and the DVD, explaining that there are really only three great wines in the world: Romanée Conti, Pétrus and Pesquera). Prices range from £7.99 for each bottle in their 600 cases of Condado de Haza 1999 to £44.99 for each bottle in their 60 cases of Pesquera Gran Reserva 1995.
