Britain's wine trade is blaming the influential American critic, Robert Parker, for the first huge price rise of Bordeaux 2005, reports Adam Lechmere in www.decanter.com. St Emilion's Quinault L'Enclos has been released and will sell in the UK at around £250 per case - an increase of 85% on last year.

Major Bordeaux merchant Farr Vintners worries that Parker's score for Quinault ("a wine that we didn't particularly like . [it] cannot be recommended") has prompted the rise and will influence other chateau owners.

"With an impressive 92-95 point score in The Wine Advocate, the owner has seized the opportunity to increase the price by a staggering 85%," the company says, adding that this sort of price rise "is certainly not to be encouraged". Adam Brett-Smith of London merchants Corney and Barrow considers a "reasonable" rise to be 10-20% on the 2003 price (2004 is discounted as "irrelevant" for the purposes of pricing).

"If a price goes into orbit because of Robert Parker, or the Wine Spectator, or any number of influences, then we wouldn't buy that wine," Brett-Smith says.

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