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

The highly anticipated re-rating by Robert Parker of the 2005 vintage for its 10^th anniversary was published at the end of June 2015. Direct impact: several price indices are rising, such as the Liv-ex listing for example, which confirms that this vintage was until now still undervalued, even though some great wines from Bordeaux had already anticipated an increase as early as December 2014.

This 2005 vintage in Bordeaux ranks second in terms of the number of wines rated 100/100 by Parker with 12 wines scoring 100/100 Parker, just behind Bordeaux 2009. This speaks to its quality, if one trusts the judgment of the famous critic! And surprisingly, all the wines with perfect scores come from the right bank of Bordeaux 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 Primeurs in Bordeaux, noted that Bordeaux 2005 was arousing unprecedented but sometimes exaggerated enthusiasm. He indicated that Bordeaux 2005 deserved to be left for a few more years before being able to judge their exceptional character.

Today, and although he has awarded many perfect scores to Bordeaux 2005, he judges that their level does not equal Bordeaux 2009 or Bordeaux 2010 which, in general, are in his opinion more qualitative.

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

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

This sharp rise in prices is also explained by a changing profile of buyers of 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, often at more affordable prices. Conversely, markets such as Asia, the United States, or emerging enthusiast countries such as Russia or Brazil have reacted with great interest to these 2005 vintage tastings. This largely explains the surge in prices.

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

In addition to the ideal climate and perfect vegetative cycle, they cite the technical advances of the Bordeaux vineyard to explain the exceptional character of the vintage, whether for Médoc, Graves, Sauternes or the right bank of Bordeaux.