Still buying opportunities among 100-pointers?

A number of 100-point Bordeaux wines from the 2000 to 2010 vintages remain under £5,000 a case – is this a pool of ‘good value’ blue chip claret to interest collectors and investors?

Thirty wines from the Left and Right Banks that have been bestowed Robert Parker’s most lauded score – the majority from the 2005, 2009 and 2010 vintages – are available for less than £5,000 a case, with the ‘cheapest’ being under £1,500.

These prices are not of course ‘cheap’ in the traditional sense of the word but compared to other 100-point wines such as 1982 Le Pin which costs £77,698 a case, or Pétrus at £34,980 and Haut-Brion 1989 at £13,900, they can certainly seem so.

Liv-ex pointed out in July of last year that this situation existed for 29 labels and has done so once again with a recent blog post. Interestingly, not a great deal appears to have changed in the intermediate period although there have been some minor tweaks to the order and a new 100-point wine (Haut-Bailly 2009) has been added bringing the total to 30.

For instance, at the very bottom, Pontet Canet and Pape Clément’s 2010 wines which were below £1,500 last July have climbed closer to that mark since that time – over-taking Léoville Poyferré 2009 which is now bottom of the heap.

The 30 100-point Bordeaux labels as of April 2016

At the other end, despite gaining hugely in the run-up to Parker’s retrospective of the 2005s, La Mission Haut-Brion’s ’05 has slipped from under £4,500 a case to just under £4,000 – which has allowed its 2009 and 2000 vintages to take the top two spots.

The mid-order of the chart, mostly composed of ’09 and ’10 Pavie, Mondotte, Beauséjour Duffau and the like, has also seen a reshuffle since last July although without huge variations in price occurring.

With Parker now departed from the Bordeaux-scoring scene, the drinks business recently asked if greater ‘cult’ status for his 100-point wines beckoned?

With so many wines not breaking through the £5,000 barrier yet, clearly demand is not high enough and volume is too high to maintain higher price points.

Vintages such as 2009 and 2010 are still comparatively young and their historically high release prices have made them harder for the market to properly digest and consume.

Nonetheless, they certainly present a good pool of critically acclaimed wines from which to pick.