(Wine-Searcher) - Hopes of price restraint are dashed as châteaux look to cash in on a better vintage.

Bordeaux producers have indicated that they are highly unlikely to heed pleas from their customers to keep 2014 prices down.

At the first tastings of the 2014 en primeur week, château owners have said that prices will be higher than recent vintages, to reflect the quality of the vintage, which they believe is one of the best of the last decade.

Owners have indicated that prices will have to be set higher than the much-criticized 2013 vintage, "because that vintage would be condemned – if we set prices at 2013 levels no one would see any reason to buy 2013", said Didier Cuvelier, owner of Château Léoville Poyferré.

Paul Pontallier, the managing director of Château Margaux, told Wine Searcher: "It would be fair to say that prices should go up. 2014 is very good – almost great – but we have to pay attention to the market."

For this reason it is likely that there will be a "goodwill gesture" to woo back disaffected buyers, he said. "Everyone wants to buy and we want to sell, so we will find a some way of accommodating that," he added.

At this early stage of the en primeur campaign no one is willing to expand on what that goodwill gesture might be.

It is, however, highly unlikely that owners will respond to the call by British merchants – in an open letter published in January this year – for 2014 prices to be set at the same level as the 2008 vintage.

Château Palmer's managing director Thomas Duroux has revealed that it s 2014 vintage will be "the same price as 2012", which was 88 percent higher than the 2008 vintage on release.

Conditions today are radically different to those in 2008, Pontallier said. "The merchants went too far with that request."

Bruno Borie, the owner of second growth Ducru Beaucaillou agreed. "Costs have gone up since 2008. Seven years ago we were facing a global financial crisis, things were very different. It's not appropriate to say that prices should be set at 2008 levels."