Although the major names in Bordeaux are likely to pay close attention to Robert Parker's scores when setting their 2010 pricing, a glowing Parker tasting note no longer guarantees that a wine will be a top performer in the years after release.
If we take a look at the wines that qualify for the Liv-ex Fine Wine Investables Index and divide vintages of Ausone, Petrus and the First Growths into two groups – those that score 96-100 points and those that score 95 points and below – we find that the top-scoring wines significantly outperformed the lower-scoring vintages between 1995 and 2007. From January 1988 to January 2008, prices for the first group increased 20-fold, whilst lower-scoring wines saw a 12-fold price increase over the same period.
The situation is quite different today. Burgeoning demand from China for popular Bordeaux brands resulted in a role reversal in the latter half of 2008. Now, more than two years on, lower-scoring vintages continue to lead the charge and have increased in value by 71 per cent since January 2008, compared to 36 per cent for high-scoring wines. Brand has taken over from Parker score in determining how a wine will perform.
