Parker retrospective boosts 05 Palmer

Château Palmer’s 2005 is the latest wine from that vintage to see an increase in trade as anticipation over Robert Parker’s forthcoming ’05 retrospective builds.

Parker’s 10-year retrospective is due by the end of the month and anticipation surrounding which wines he will upgrade has seen a growing number of wines from the vintage begin to see increased levels of activity since the end of last year and even more so since January of this year.

The biggest beneficiary so far has been Mouton Rothschild’s 2005 which was re-scored last December at 99+/100 points.

It subsequently jumped nearly 25% in price in under six months to over £4,000 a case. Haut Bailly and Montrose are two more estates that have felt the “Parker effect” in recent months.

Palmer’s progression since release has followed that of many of the ‘05s. upgraded from 94-96 to 97 in April 2008, it traded at £2,700 a case at its peak and then drifted, sinking down to its en primeur price in effect.

Last year as the market began to increasingly focus on the 2005s it began to benefit from the “ripple effect” post-Mouton’s upgrade. In December it was trading at £1,685 a case, last week it was back to £2,150 – a 30% increase.

As Liv-ex pointed out Parker’s notes seem to point to yet another upgrade for the 2005 Palmer which he has listed among the “all-time great Palmers” such as the 1961, 1966, 1970, 1989, 2000 and 2009, a “Palmer for the ages.”

Parker previously called the wines “museum pieces” but has subsequently revised his opinion and admitted his in-bottle scores were unduly harsh. This has only added further fuel to the fire surrounding the 2005s which have largely declined to their en primeur release prices since 2008 – making what are generally considered some of the best wines of the last decade almost ludicrously cheap for their quality.

Finally, the excitement generated by what Parker will do shows once again (the last being the in-bottle scores for the 2012s) that despite giving up en primeur tasting, his influence among buyers once wines reach the secondary market is very far from spent.