In November 2011 Robert Parker arranged a tasting of the 2009s of 20 Bordeaux chateaux at Winefuture Hong Kong. Dubbed the ‘Magical 20’, these were estates that Parker claimed “produce wines of first growth quality, although technically not first growths. Consequently, they are under-valued and very smart acquisitions”.
We have created an index that tracks these wines’ 2001-2010 vintages over the last five years to see if they really were “smart acquisitions.” As shown, the Magical 20 did not climb as high as the First Growths or the Bordeaux 500 during the bull market of 2011. Nor did they drop as far when the market declined. As a result, the Magical 20 index is showing a rise of 42% compared with 33% for the Liv-ex 50 and 32% for the Bordeaux 500, having managed to hold relatively steady during a falling market. Currently it is just 4% off peak, and has risen 1.2% since the November 2011 tasting.
