Finally the floodgates have burst, and the trickle of wines being offered from Bordeaux has turned into a deluge of blue chip chateaux with prices to match. One thing is quite clear: Bordeaux 2005 is not a cheap date. You may have to sell your car, outbuildings and possibly less important members of your family to afford the wines you want. And then there’s the question of allocations. Never in history has a Bordeaux negociant felt so loved, looked after and generally needed. For it is in their hands which merchants will have wine to sell – at all – and which will leave the primeur table empty handed. Nevertheless people are not being put off; as this truly is a great vintage in the making (and everyone says it is), even battle-hardened Bordeaux regulars are dipping their toes in, selling vital organs and generally get caught up in the melee. It is funny to think of the wines themselves, as yet not fully formed or blended, slumbering in their expensive lairs, perhaps blissfully unaware of the fistfuls of cash changing hands in their names. Theirs is a heady future indeed, with expectations hopes and a large amount of cash invested in their future.