The suspense is almost killing us, isn’t it? The wait for the real heavyweights of the 2005 primeurs campaign, I mean. Although today at least we have Prieuré-Lichine, Gruaud-Larose, du Tertre, Marojollia, Haut Bages Libéral and Haut Marbuzet so far to choose from.
The lesser, proper wines are at last been tumbling out, at prices roughly 30 per cent above the previous record release prices of the 2003 campaign, so we must brace ourselves for some spectacular prices for super seconds and the like, presumably in the next week or so – otherwise we’ll all have gone off on holiday before a good wallow in tut-tutting and, possibly, buying.
The wines released so far have been selling well, I’m told. And I wondered whether you were aware of the special 2005 bordeaux price monitor on winesearcher.com which shows average release price, how many of the merchants they track are offering that particular wine, and how much each is asking.
You can look specifically at either the UK or US market, and they also list the same information for the 2004 vintage. This is seriously useful, and winesearcher.com has been rather quiet about it. I cannot stress enough that I have no commercial link with this price comparison resource apart from, like other sites that link directly to its useful service, I get what seems to be a very small fraction of a penny referral fee for each time you click on that link. But long before this arrangement I have sung the site's praises as I think it is delightfully easy to use and is highly illuminating – not just in showing who is overcharging in one particular country, but also in illustrating the different price structures in different countries for the same wine.
It was founded by Martin Brown who was responsible for the initial design of the highly superior Berry Bros website www.bbr.com.
It was founded by Martin Brown who was responsible for the initial design of the highly superior Berry Bros website www.bbr.com.