Great 2005 Bordeaux: a 10th anniversary and rising prices!

The long-awaited re-rating by Robert Parker of the 2005 vintage for its 10^th anniversary was published at the end of June 2015. The direct impact: several price indices are on the rise, such as the Liv-ex index for example, confirming that this vintage had until now been undervalued, even though certain great Bordeaux wines had already anticipated a price increase as early as December 2014.

This 2005 Bordeaux vintage ranks second in terms of the number of wines awarded a perfect Parker score of 100/100, with 12 wines achieving 100/100 Parker, just behind the 2009 Bordeaux. This speaks to its quality, if one trusts the judgement of the famous critic! And a surprising finding: all the wines with a perfect score come from the Bordeaux right bank, with the exception of Château Haut Brion and Mission Haut Brion; the Médoc being notably absent from this elite group.

Robert Parker, at the time of the Bordeaux En Primeur tastings, noted that the 2005 Bordeaux were generating unprecedented, though sometimes exaggerated, enthusiasm. He indicated that the 2005 Bordeaux deserved to be waited a few more years before one could judge their exceptional character.

Today, even though he has awarded numerous perfect scores to the 2005 Bordeaux, he judges that their level does not match the 2009 Bordeaux or 2010 Bordeaux which, generally speaking, are according to him of higher quality.

Below, the evolution of scores for the new 2005 Bordeaux wines rated 100/100 by Parker:

And even if Robert Parker thus tempers his enthusiasm for the 2005 Bordeaux, the release of these new scores has reignited the market's interest in this vintage. In less than a week after the publication of his new note, certain châteaux such as Cheval Blanc and La Mission Haut Brion have already gained up to 10% of their value.

This sharp rise in prices is also explained by an evolving buyer profile for great Bordeaux wines. On one hand, Europeans — traditionally fond of Bordeaux — unable to keep up with current inflation, are turning to other wine regions such as the Loire, Languedoc Roussillon or the Rhône, which offer an equally unique 2005 vintage at often more affordable prices. Conversely, markets such as Asia, the United States, or emerging wine-enthusiast countries like Russia and Brazil have responded with great interest to these tastings of the 2005 vintage. This largely explains the surge in prices.

Prior to this publication by Robert Parker, the Revue des Vins de France (RVF) had organised in November 2014 a masterful tasting of the 2005 vintages. And the experts consulted were effusive in their praise!

In addition to the ideal climate and perfect vegetative cycle, experts point to the technical advances made in the Bordeaux vineyard to explain the exceptional character of the vintage, whether for the Médoc, the Graves, the Sauternais or the right bank of Bordeaux.