Bordeaux loses prestige among younger wine lovers.

The hyperbole over 2009 Bordeaux began building even before the harvest last fall. Ripples of praise grew into waves this spring as critics and the trade descended on Bordeaux for the annual ritual of tasting the most recent vintage from barrels. Their ecstatic reviews reverberated through Britain, which takes its claret extremely seriously. They rang out in Hong Kong, the leading edge of what Bordeaux hopes will be a huge Asian market.

In the United States, the huzzahs resonated with collectors and wine investors, and with high-end restaurants whose clients don’t mind spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on renowned bottles. These people paid attention when Robert M. Parker Jr., the wine critic whose opinions most influence Bordeaux prices, wrote, “For some Médocs and Graves, 2009 may turn out to be the finest vintage I have tasted in 32 years of covering Bordeaux.”

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December 2012