Which vintage of red bordeaux is the best value? There is no doubt that red bordeaux is being made to be drinkable much earlier than in the past, and it is worth considering the vintages of the first decade of this century.

The least expensive 21st-century vintages with any pretensions to being drinkable – 2002, 2004 and 2007 – are all about the same price. As in Burgundy, the 2007s are relatively charming early-maturers but, with under six years in bottle, they are hardly ambassadors for red bordeaux’s great distinguishing mark: its ability to age. Ten years has conventionally been considered the minimum age for enjoying a halfway serious red bordeaux. Two years ago I wrote about how the 2002s tasted at the 10-year mark. There are some exceptionally good ones such as Latour and the Haut-Brions but, on the whole, 2002 is a relatively slight vintage.

Last week I had the chance to taste blind 77 of the smarter 2004s (though not the first growths) in suitable flights, followed by 22 less glorious reds and an array of the finest Sauternes non-blind. I had high hopes as, although this was a record crop in terms of size, I’d enjoyed some of the wines when I first tasted them and the firm, ripe tannins and freshness in the best examples. This was a year when, after a poor flowering in 2002 and the depredations of the 2003 heatwave, the vines had a mass of pent-up energy and, in delightfully fine weather, sprouted forth buds in June – so much so that the better estates which could afford the labour had to thin the crop rigorously in the summer. Alexandre Thienpont of Vieux Chateau Certan reported gloomily in 2005 that 2004 had been the most demanding year in the vineyard that he had known. (Little did he know what the next decade had in store.)