And an ambitiously priced Palmer

There's been a lot of action since our offer last Thursday, none of it sales of Palmer. The chateau this morning had the unenviable accolade of topping Liv-ex's bar graph of 2013 price relative to cheapest vintage available.  The word is that Mähler-Besse, a substantial shareholder, is up for sale, and I wonder whether this hasn't resulted in rather over-ambitious pricing against the better judgement of Sichel, another major shareholder. (For the latter, memories linger of the 1997 wine, and Peter Sichel returning from holiday furious to discover the release price set in his absence.) Still, it's good news for Rauzan-Segla, as well as Tuesday's release of Brane-Cantenac, both lovely wines, scored well by the critics, and modestly priced.

By far our biggest selling wine of the past week has been yesterday's Grand-Puy-Lacoste. There are possibly only two better wines in Pauillac this year, and none to match this for value. In 2012 Xavier Borie hired Christel Spinner as R&D manager, and she's instigated a lot of fine-tuning. The chateau previously followed the same harvest pattern each year, but Christel analyses and tweaks it as work progresses. This really seems to have paid dividends in 2013. Jean-Marc Quarin rates this the equal of Lafite and Latour. Emeline, Xavier's daughter, says it should turn out as well as other previously underrated vintages such as 2004, and should be good for 20 years of ageing - especially in magnum.

Also yesterday came Clos Fourtet, now consistently among the top wines of St-Emilion in everything but price. This morning we have the last of the left bank first growth primeurs, the Dillon family's Haut-Brion, together with its neighbour La Mission and their St-Emilion chateau, Quintus. Unsurprisingly, the Haut-Brion price follows the lead set by Mouton and Margaux. Until the market changes, the upside looks limited, but nevertheless these three firsts are certainly finding buyers. /AR

Offered subject to confirmation for shipment spring 2016