Chateau Petrus has smashed en primeur records as cases of the not-yet-bottled 2005 vintage changed hands for £20,000 - that's £1600 a bottle or about £50 a sip, reports Adam Lechmere on Decanter.com.

The Pomerol chateau is no stranger to price tags that would make a billionaire blush - but never before has a Bordeaux wine sold for such a sum en primeur.
As an investment, one merchant warns, it is less than gilt-edged, mainly because Robert Parker has not yet given his final score on the wine. Parker gives en primeur wines - tasted in barrel - a range of scores, which he finalises when they are bottled two years later.

Petrus 2005 is rated 96-100, which means that there is a possibility, albeit remote, it may not get 100 points in April 2008.

The biggest price increase recorded by the web site, Wine-Searcher.com, is jointly held by Troplong Mondot and Larcis Ducasse, both showing increases of 349% on last year's releases.

First Growth chateaux Latour, Lafite-Rothschild, Margaux, Mouton-Rothschild and Haut Brion are all placed in the top 10 of biggest increases, with jumps of 254%, 293%, 344%, 291% and 301% respectively. St Emilion's Chateau Ausone sees an increase of 342% on last year's release price.

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