With prices spiralling out of control because of a buying frenzy unleashed by the media hype over the vintage (it was a rare instance of the hype measuring up to reality), the 2005 releases of the First Growths will be impossible to get in India. You'd really be foolish to expect wines being picked up by merchants for €530 a bottle to sell for anything less than Rs 60,000 (excluding 20% VAT) a bottle in India .

The price quoted, of course, assumes that five-star hotels will be more wine-friendly and less greedy, and not impose their usual 100-300% mark-ups. Only five-star hotels will be able to afford the vintage because they the majority of them have the facility for duty-free imports. Stand-alone restaurants might as well forget about the vintage.

Adam Lechmere of Decanter.com reports: The last two first growths have released their wines to market - at a record-breaking €350 per bottle. Chateaux Margaux and Latour will join their other blue-blood neighbours on the shelf for more than £4,000 a case. These are the most expensive prices for Bordeaux at en primeur .

Patrick Bernard, Managing Director of negociant s Millesima, expects to sell Margaux and Latour for around €530 per bottle. He lamented the high prices but accepted they were the result of market forces. "A lot of people in France and western Europe would like to buy but won't be able to. Our best clients can't buy. When they ring we say we can't do anything."

Internet-based search engine Wine-Searcher.com has found a 95% increase in prices. The average price per case is £493, a 95% increase from the 2004 vintage at £252. In the US, the average price per case is US$965, up 82% from 2004 at $531. The biggest increase so far recorded by a single chateau is Larcis Ducasse. Its 2005 price is £699 compared to £160 for 2004, a record 337% growth.

Where does that leave India ? Asking for more, but not getting a drop, we presume.

For Lechmere's complete story, go to www.decanter.com

( http://www.decanter.com/news/87443.html )