Bordeaux 2008 – the inside story

Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday we’ll be publishing our tasting notes on the more than 550 different 2008s that we tasted in Bordeaux at the beginning of this month. Then on Saturday my general overview on the wines will be published – a shorter version in the Financial Times with the unexpurgated one here in Free for all.

But here for purple pagers is a preview of my impressions of this fascinating vintage. If I had to sum 2008 Bordeaux up in one word, that word would be ‘surprising’. The Bordelais are in the habit of announcing new vintages with dubious...