Some more 2000 Bordeaux have arrived and re-arrived.

I've been tasting wines for a long time and have always said that Bordeaux wines are difficult to enjoy at this young age. But each time I open a new 2000, I am amazed.

These 2000's are fully fruited wines which have color, flavor and concentration that makes them consistently more delicious than any previous Bordeaux at this level, and at this young stage of development.

What do you get when you cross Robert Kacher with Chateau Mouton-Rothschild?

a stampede?

Some years ago, French wine importer/selector/blender extraordinaire, Robert Kacher, got involved in a project in Languedoc called Tocques et Clochers.

One of the best $$ VALUES $$ to cross my lips in a long time.

VINA MontGras vineyards are located about 300 miles southwest of Santiago, Chile, in the Cochagua Valley. The Coastal Range to the West and the Andes to the East. The mornings are cool, the days are hot, and the Pacific Ocean breezes cool the vineyards. Temperatures range from the 60's to the 80's.

Practically a carbon copy of Napa Valley.

Southern Italy. Puglia (or is it Apulia . . . how Italian are you?). The heel of the boot.

Two rich, ruby red wines. Warm, glowing and non tannic. The warm breeze off the Adriatic doesn't have a snowball's chance to cool the hot red earth and seared white limestone. When I say hot, I mean they have to harvest the grapes before 9 in the morning. The grapes turn out ripe, ripe, ripe. Low in acidity, tasting mellow and extracted.

Contrary to popular belief, I have not tasted every wine on the planet.

The reputations of Spanish Specialist wine importer Jorge Ordonez and world recognized Wine Advocate Robert Parker have combined to get me drooling over this wine months before its arrival.

It's been called the Chateau Latour of Rioja. The '96 vintage was rated 94+ and the '98 topped that with a 95. Only 500 cases come to the U.S. and I have been promised 35 six packs.

You can buy it for as little as $50. a bottle.

FIFTY DOLLARS A BOTTLE AND YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TASTED IT, STEVE?