When delWine carried Adam Lechmere's Decanter.com story on First Growth Chateau Lafite's release price, we had overlooked that Haut Brion was the first to announce its 2005 price, which was 250% more expensive than 2004. (It was very thoughtful of Mark Walford of Richards Walford, the leading UK importers of fine French and Italian wine, to point out the oversight.)

Haut Brion announced a bottle price of €240 last week (€2880 per case) and it released a portion of its total stocks by giving its customers just under half of their 2004 allocation. Last year, Haut Brion released at €96.

Merchants have not put the wine on sale as they are waiting to find out what their total allocation will be – as well as the final price after all tranches are released.

It is likely to be up to two weeks before the public has access to prices. Merchants do not announce any First Growths for sale until all have released all their tranches – a process that may take at least 10 days.

Depending on the perceived quality of the vintage, top chateaux release their wines to the market in batches or ‘tranches', upping the price between each tranche. In a highly valued year like 2005 at least four tranches are expected from each of the top-rated chateaux.

For the complete story, go to www.decanter.com/news

( Hyperlink: www.decanter.com/news/87086.html )