Best value 100-point Haut-Brion

What is the best value 100-point Haut-Brion currently on the market and which are best-placed to reward timely investment?

There are six vintages of the Pessac Léognan first growth with ‘perfect’ 100-point scores from Robert Parker: 1945, 1961, 1989, 2005, 2009 and 2010.

For the purposes of this comparison, it’s wise to ignore the two ‘historic’, oldest vintages, which anyway are no longer quite as liquid as the other four and harder to find.

Naturally, of the other four the best-performing wine is that which has been in the market longest: the 1989 – a “seamless, majestic classic,” according to Parker.

Released in 1990 at £480 a case it has since soared over 3,600% to a current best market price of £13,900 on Liv-ex.

Certainly this makes for good reading if one is lucky enough to be sitting on a case or two now but it’s hardly the best place for prospective buyers looking for a strong return to jump in.

Even if it is a little off its 2011 peak of £14,500 a case, to which it may return in time, there’s just not much ‘wiggle room’ for much more appreciation: certainly in the short to mid-term.

As already examined by Liv-ex, the other three wines are interesting because they all sit at around £5,000 a case – not ‘cheap’ but arguably ‘affordable’ from the perspective of a 100-point first growth.

En primeur buyers of the 2005 will have been heartened by its elevation from 98 to 100-points by Parker in June of last year.

Until that point it had been the ‘cheapest’ of the 100-point pack but a rise of 13.9% over the course of July 2015 changed that.

Currently priced at £5,400 a case, its risen 54.3% since its release and 17.4% over the course of the last year. Like most fine wines it is off its 2011 peak, a good time to buy in perhaps before it climbs too far?

The final two wines need to be examined as a pair, the “blockbuster” 2009 and “ethereal” 2010.

Both released at around £7,000, with the 2009 the more expensive of the pair at £7,800.

Both have slumped post-release, the 2009 by 34.6% and the 2010 by 25.6% leaving them currently at £5,100 and £5,650 a case respectively.

Over the course of the last year though, the 2010 has rallied by 2.8% while the 2009 has continued to dip, down just over 2% which makes it £300 cheaper than the 2005.

With Haut-Brion increasingly one of the first growths of the moment and a wine as highly rated as the 2009 still labouring in the market, it certainly looks like a tempting place at which to jump in.