American wine guru Robert Parker seemingly came to the rescue of the wine industry last week as he gave a perfect 100 score to 18 wines from Bordeaux’s 2009 vintage.
The critic, whose judgement and scoring have been known to make or break the world’s great wines, has been lauding the 2009 vintage ever since its en primeur tasting, when he called it the greatest Bordeaux vintage he have ever tasted.
“It may turn out to be the finest vintage I have tasted in 32 years of covering Bordeaux,” he said.
Prices of many Bordeaux vintage wines had fallen by up to 30 per cent since 2011, but Mr Parker’s 2009 scores has turned things around. There has already been dramatic rises in the prices of some wines given the 100 point score.
“Literally within 24 hours, some 2009 wines rose 65 per cent,” said one wine investment group while another estimated that Mr Parker’s scores have added a staggering $100 million (€76 million) to the value of the 2009 vintage.
Mr Parker said that the most striking aspect of the vintage is its consistency across producers, particularly cru bourgeois and petits vins.
Many people may have already missed the boat as far as the 2009 100 pointers are concerned as many of the more well known Chateaux have already been snapped up.
For example, Chateaux Pavie and Ducru Beaucaillou increased by18-19 per cent to €2,555 per case. Pontet-Canet rose 26 per cent to €1,889 £per case and Haut-Brion is now €8,998 per case.
The complete list of 18 wines that received the 100 points are Chateaux: Latour, Léoville Poyferré, La Mission Haut-Brion, La Mondotte, Montrose, Pavie, Pétrus, Le Pin, Pontet-Canet, Haut-Brion, Smith-Haut-Lafitt Beauséjour (Duffau Lagarrosse), Bellevue Mondotte, Clinet, Clos Fourtet, Cos d’Estournel, Ducru Beaucaillou and l’Evangile.
Another wine investor said that he is optimistic about the rest of 2012 as a really outstanding year such as 2009 and a price surge tends to filter through to other vintages, which look good value compared with the now highly priced 2009s.
By comparison the 1996, 2000, 2003 and 2005 vintages have fallen in price and now look good value” he concluded.