Liv-ex Fine Wine Market Blog

The power of Parker... and Lafite

The big winner from Parker's 2008 Bordeaux scores in terms of secondary market pricing is clearly Lafite Rothschild.

The graph below shows Lafite 2008's trading history on the Liv-ex Fine Wine exchange since release.

Following the release of yesterday's scores it moved from around £2,000 a 12x75cl case to a high of £3,500, although it has since come back a touch to rest at £3,000.

The power of Parker is clear.

Also evident, however, is the power of Lafite.

As we saw with the 2006 vintage (which jumped in price following the recent Parker upgrade) a high-scoring Lafite usually finds a home at somewhere over £3,000. 

In contrast, the market for many other high-scoring 2008s has been far more subdued. A warning, perhaps, to the chateaux that are yet to release.

See Decanter.com's take on this story.

Parker surprises with glowing '08 scores

Robert Parker released his scores for the 2008 Bordeaux vintage last night and surprised the market with his generosity. He scored the vintage significantly higher that all the other major critics to have pronounced so far and gave four wines the opportunity to score 100 points.

As he notes in his vintage report:

"It did not take me long to realize that the 2008 vintage was dramatically better than I had expected. It had all the qualities that make an excellent and in some cases, a great vintage so special: exceptionally dark opaque colours, gorgeously ripe fruit, stunning purity almost across the board, great freshness (because it was a cool year), slightly higher acids than normal, and remarkable density as well as concentration. Moreover, one of the significant keys to evaluating quality is the maturity of the tannins. In 2008, the tannins are unusually velvety."

He also stated: "There is no question that Pomerol seems to be the epicentre of many extraordinary wines. I would even go so far as to say the 2008 Pomerols eclipse/surpass the quality of the 2005s, 2001s, and 2000s."

The top-scoring First Growth was Lafite Rothshchild with 98-100 points, which was also the top wine in the Liv-ex 2008 Bordeaux En Primeur Survey.

All the wines scoring 94-96 and above are listed below:

(source: erobertparker.com).

So, what are we to make of the scores? Anecdotally, it would seem most members of the trade are incredulous. Simon Staples, fine wine director at Berry Bros & Rudd, is arguably speaking for many with a post he made this morning on Twitter:

"He went crazy about 2003 (all on his own) He missed 2005 (everyone else loved it) He's now potty about 08(a few very nice wines) Plot? Lost?”

To see how highly he rates the 2008 compared to recent vintages, we took a group of 29 of the most popular wines in both the investment and collecting communities. We then analysed their scores in the 2003, 2005 and 2006 vintage, with the 2008 scores represented by the middle of the barrel score spread. As you can see below, on average, 2008 is rated significantly higher than both 2006 and 2003, and just 0.3 of a point behind 2005.

(Source: erobertparker.com/ *middle of barrel score spread)

A full analysis of these numbers will be included in the next week's Liv-ex Market Report along with their effect on the fine wine market. What fate the 2006s and 2007s?

Waiting for Parker

With the the market now waiting for the notes and score from Robert Parker, trade in 2008 Bordeaux has gone rather quiet. According to a post by Parker on the Mark Squires Bulletin Board, his notes will be released later today on his website  at 6pm East Coast time. That would mean we should see them at around midnight in the UK. Check back tomorrow for a full rundown.

In the same post, he commented on the vintage itself:

“Self-serving it may be, but writing the report on 2008 Bordeaux after spending 10 days (usually 12 hours a day) tasting through it time after time, has proven to be one of the most interesting vintages I have ever written about...with 30 vintages of experience, I should have learned to expect the unexpected....but 2008 demonstrated that in spades...”

We'll just have to wait and see what "interesting" actually means.

2008 Bordeaux top tens

Those who had a look at the results of the Liv-ex 2008 Bordeaux En Primeur Survey will have noticed that Lafite Rothschild was named wine of the vintage by the Liv-ex membership (see below for the full top ten).

So how does this list compare with the views of the major critics?

Below is the top ten wines of the vintage according to four different critics (although due to tied scores, most of the lists consist of more than ten wines).

James Suckling (winespectator.com)

Jancis Robinson MW (jancisrobinson.com)

Decanter (decanter.com)

Neal Martin (erobertparker.com)

By awarding points for a wine's ranking in each list, including the Liv-ex survey (10 points for a 1st place, 9 for a 2nd, and so on), we have also created a 'grand' top ten. Ausone is the wine of the vintage, with Latour the top First Growth. Will Robert Parker agree? We will find out next week, with the notes expected on the 30th. As always, check back here for the scores.

Liv-ex En Primeur Survey results

Each year Liv-ex surveys the international wine trade upon their return from tasting the new Bordeaux vintage. The survey is designed to track the consensus of opinion amongst the best professional tasters of young Bordeaux. Liv-ex’s membership numbers more than 230 of the world’s biggest buyers and sellers of fine wine.

The 2008 survey was launched in early April and was concluded prior to the release of the major wines. The results can now be found on the main website.

In summary, as voted by the Liv-ex Membership:

• Lafite Rothschild is the wine of the 2008 vintage.
• Pontet Canet tops the “value for money” category.
• Montrose was the most disappointing wine.
• The vintage scored 91 (out of 100) on average.
• Release prices are expected to be down on 2007 by 38% on average.

Jancis Robinson's Purple pages offer

Jancis Robinson MW - the UK’s leading wine critic - has kindly offered Liv-ex users a 20% discount on a year’s membership of her excellent ‘Purple Pages’

at www.jancisrobinson.com.

The subscription gives access to thousands of tasting notes and articles along with exclusive online access to the Oxford Companion to Wine and the World Atlas of Wine maps.  To get access to all of this for the bargain price of £55 (usually £69), simply click here and enter the promotional code: LVX321.

The offer runs until 30 April.

April Market Report released

In summary, the April Report includes:

•  Trading Activity – down 5% y-o-y

•  Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index – down 1.2% in March

•  Major Movers – Krug 1996 on the rise

•  Critical corner – James Suckling on 2008 Bordeaux

•  Final Thought – Latour starts the 2008 campaign

•  Discount offer on Jancis Robinson MW's Purple Pages

Please log in and download the full report from the analysis menu.

Please note that if you are not subscribed to a Liv-ex Cellar Watch package you will not be able to view the full report. 

View the Liv-ex Cellar Watch package options here.

You can also view a previous report here.

Bordeaux 2008 pages go live

We have now launched our Bordeaux 2008 en primeur pages on the main Liv-ex website.

The Liv-ex Bordeaux 2008 en primeur pages are designed to keep you up to date with all the important information via our independent and transparent tools. You can quickly check the data for all the top wines: such as scores from the top critics and the latest London release prices. You can also find the best current list prices, original London release prices and scores for wines from the last five vintages. Registration is necessary to view the full info.

It seems the campaign has kicked off early this year, with top right bank Angelus releasing coming out yesterday at £725 (London release). Trading and Platinum members may have noticed that it has already been offered on the Liv-ex Fine Wine Exchange.

As usual, James Suckling of the Wine Spectator was the first major critic to publish his scores and a selection of these can be viewed on the Liv-ex en primeur pages.

We are also inviting trade members who attended the Bordeaux en primeur tastings to take part in our survey on the current vintage (see last year's here). Details on how to participate has now gone out to member companies.

As part of the survey we will be asking our traders to predict the release price of a basket of wines. The participant that gets closest to the total will receive a six pack of the delicious Haut Bailly 2004. If you would  like to take part but haven't received an invitation please email info@liv-ex.co.uk for details.

Thoughts on Bordeaux 2008

The focus of the fine wine trade has firmly been on Bordeaux for the last week, with many of the trade's leading members in the region to evaluate the '08 vintage as part of the annual en primeur tastings. Next week we will give you a full news round-up. First, however, here are the views of Liv-ex's 'man on the ground', Anthony Maxwell. We’ll leave scoring and expansive notes to the professional critics, but here is a short saignée of what Anthony tasted and discussed.

· “Better than expected” was the general theme. However, this was against a backdrop of low expectations due to other factors, both economic and meteorological.

· Price is always mentioned, but never has it been such a topic. Also, ALL the négociants seem to be in the “severe price reductions needed” camp. Normally they hedge their bets a little more. This year, they are clearly siding with the international trade on the issue.

· It was very empty throughout Bordeaux compared to any of en primeur tastings that I’ve attended over the past ten years. No waiting to taste, empty roads and relatively empty tasting rooms (except for the free lunches at the relevant UGC events).

· Of the people that were there: plenty of UK trade, quite a lot of French, a few Americans, a few Japanese, no Koreans.

· Rumours of the First Growths “leading” the way with an ex-chateau price of €100 a bottle and an early release date (pre-Parker at the end of April) abound. Where the truth lies, it is hard to tell. Certainly, the 'Super Seconds' didn’t seem to keen on reducing their prices by too much.

· When asked on price, plenty of answers around the issue, including “we reduced our price in 2006 and 2007, so we have already come down.” However, this doesn’t take into account how much they reduced them in those two years, compared to how much they put them up in the 2005 campaign.

· Certainly, the trade have an appetite for a campaign and believe they can sell the wines for the right price. A vintage to re-engage the claret drinker rather than speculator? And to get the consumer back onside with the wines of Bordeaux?

· There will be a campaign, early talk of the Chateaux not releasing seem off the mark (a couple may not) but in general the Chateaux want to and need to sell their wine.

Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index down in March

The value of the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index as of 31st March 2009 was 207.43, a fall of 1.3% on the previous month. The index is up 1.2% year to date, and down 18.2% year on year.  To trade futures on the Liv-ex 100 visit Intrade.