GRAPEVINE: 1995 CLARETS

1995 CLARETS

Right now is the time, if you ever intend to, to buy fine 1995 clarets. If you leave it a few weeks, the good ones won't be available, and those that are will be far more expensive.

It is years since wine merchants have reached such fever-pitch over the buying and selling of claret as in the last few weeks. 1995 is not a great vintage, though it has many delicious stars, and some great wines. But it is the first good vintage since 1990. Buyers the world over are panting for fine young claret. And there isn't enough to go round. The traditional big buyers (Europe and the US) are this year in competition for the first time with a new, rich, gastronomic elite in Hong Kong and Singapore, who hardly bought any fine claret in 1990, but are expected to swallow up about 15 per cent of the top 1995s. American guru Robert Parker has given the 1995 vintage his blessing. British merchants, meanwhile, are on strict allocation, penalised by the Bordelais for not buying the disappointing 91s, 92s, 93s and 94s. And prices of the top wines (already ten to 30 per cent up on last year's) are almost certain to rise fast.

Haste may be vital, but so is caution. Quality is very mixed even amongst top wines. And buying Bordeaux en primeur in the early summer following the harvest is always something of a gamble. The wine simply isn't finished yet. It's sitting in barrels in the wineries, and there it will remain, getting ever oakier, until some time in 1997, when it will be bottled ready for shipment early in 1998 (though you pay now). Merchants and pundits had to judge the embryonic wines in Bordeaux in March and April. At that stage the wines not only lacked their lengthy spell in oak barrels. Some chateaux had not even selected and blended the vats and barrels for the wine that would be sold under the chateau name. For the spring tastings, they make up blends that are supposed to be representative of these final blends.

And wine merchants and writers' selections have to be made on trust. They get what they are given, and rarely get to nose around in a chateau's barrel store. "lt's obviously very tempting for a chateau to select its best samples from its best tanks," says Stephen Browett of fine Bordeaux specialists Farr Vintners in London. "But it would be a scandal if someone produced fantastic samples and then turned out a disappointing wine. The wine will taste different anyway, given oak, and time. You can't finally judge the wines until they're bottled.

So what are they like so far? The best are really deeply coloured, with lovely, ripe fruit and lots of soft tannin. Less good ones tend to be either dilute, or tannic in a tough, dry sort of way. The tough tannin is a result of some vines being water-starved in the 1995 summer drought. The dilution came from a spell of September rain. Grapes picked at this time had gulped up lots of water; later-picked grapes had time after the rain to ripen and concentrate their flavour.

Here are my tips for winning 1995 chateaux, arranged in categories according to preference: 1) Mouton, in a class of its own; 2) Latour, Margaux; 3) Canon-la-Gaffeliere, Cheval Blanc, Lafite; 4) Pavie, Leoville-Barton; 5) Pichon-Lalande, Ausone, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Cos d'Estournel, Figeac, Dufort-Viviens, Leoville-Poyferre, Prieure-Lichine; 6) La Dominique, Calon-Segur, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Les Forts de Latour, Beauregard, Langoa- Barton, Pavillon Rouge, Rauzan-Segla, L'Eglise-Clinet; 7) Talbot, Pape- Clement, La Conseillante.

With delivery two years off, it's important to buy from a financially solid wine merchant. If you have access to the Internet, consult Robert Joseph on http://www.goodwineguide.com for up-to-date information on who's selling what, prices and pundits' ratings. Solid wine merchants offering 1995s include: Berry Bros & Rudd of London SW1 (0171 396 9600); Farr Vintners of London SW1 (0171 828 1960); Findlater, Mackie, Todd of London SW19 (0181 543 7528); Justerini & Brooks of London SW1 and Edinburgh (0171 493 8721); Harveys of Bristol (0117 927 5010); Morris & Verdin of London SE1 (0171 357 8866); Tanners of Shrewsbury (01743 232400); and The Wine Society of Stevenage (01438 741177).