Although considered one
of the last decade’s great vintages, prices for many 2005s have failed to live
up to their 2008 peak. Having rocketed in anticipation of Parker’s in-bottle scores,
prices fell when he awarded just two wines 100 points (Ausone and Eglise
Clinet). Since then Parker has admitted that he perhaps underrated the vintage
(such as in this 2012 interview
with Liv-ex) but some wines remain relatively good value.
98-point Haut Brion 2005
is one. Trading at £4,725 per 12×75, it is almost half its peak price of June
2008, and the same as May 2007. When considered in relation to other great vintages
and to fellow Firsts, the wine looks to offer value (as measured by our Price Over
Points ratio below, where a low score denotes better value). Moreover, James
Suckling scores it 100.
POP
A
wine’s POP score is its price-over-points ratio, our loose measure of
value. It is calculated by dividing the price of a nine-litre case of wine by a shortened 20-point Parker score. We calculate this
20-point score by simply subtracting 80 from the official Parker rating, on the
basis that any wine under 80 points is unlikely to attract a secondary market.
It also gives more weight to each point than if we used Parker’s official 50-point
scale (he gives all wines a base score of 50). In theory, the lower the POP
score the better value a wine is.
