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What Parker’s verdict means for Bordeaux 2011

Robert Parker published his take on the Bordeaux 2011 vintage on Friday. In general, there were very few surprises. But although the wait for Parker is over, the campaign has paused for the long weekend in France. (See the Liv-ex En Primeur Pages for the latest news, prices and scores.) Nonetheless, there is plenty to ponder. 

We analysed the reviews of 35 leading Bordeaux chateaux in order to calculate the vintage's mean score. Using the mid-point of each barrel-score spread for our calculation, 2011 achieved an average of 92.5 points – placing it between 2008 (93.7) and 2001 (91.9) in terms of quality. 

Vintage comparison

But what does this imply for 2011 pricing?

The new releases must be more affordable than comparable vintages in order to appeal to buyers. With this in mind, the table below shows the current 2001 and 2008 prices of the labels in our study. (All prices are for 12x75cl cases stored in bond.) Given that the '01s have now spent almost a decade in bottle, the 2011s will need to be subtantially cheaper in order to represent real value.

2001 vs 2008

Two of the wines shown above have already come to market. If we compare their actual London release prices to the values of their 2001s and 2008s, it is clear why only one of them has attracted demand. 

Actual release prices