Saturday 17 December 2016 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 1FT SPECIAL REPORT

FT Wine Buying & Investing

A s sterling tumbled on June24, following the UK’s voteto leave the EU, anythingpriced in pounds suddenlybecame much cheaper for

international buyers — and wine was noexception. (It is traded in pounds eventhoughit ismostlyproducedinFrance.)

Jamie Graham of merchants Bruns-wick Fine Wines & Spirits reports thatcallers on that morning from Asia andthe US were desperately keen to buywine and even offered to pay up front totake advantage of the plummeting UKcurrency. Buyers using euros effectivelyenjoyed a 12 per cent discount and thoseusingdollars15percent.

“This high demand for fine wines andspirits continued throughout the sum-mer and for the next few weeksbeyond,” says Mr Graham. “The initialjump has now died away noticeably,although we are still seeing some inter-est across all sectors, especially at theverytopend.”

Of course, a cheap pound is not goodnews for UK companies trying to buyabroad. “Sterling fell through the floorafter Brexit,” says Mr Graham. “Butsince it has partially recovered againstthe euro, it means it’s easier for UK mer-chants to restock. In addition, sterlingremains weak against the US dollar andso wine lovers in the US and in HongKong, whose dollar is pegged to that ofthe US, can still find relative value in theUK if they’re canny.” Mr Graham hasvisitedHongKongsince thereferendumtomeetwealthypotentialcustomers.

Amanda Skinner, director of winemerchant Private Cellar, reports strongsales abroad. “After demand from theFarEastcametoastutteringhalt inmid-2011, there was a lot of overpriced stockout there,” she says. “It has taken sometime to sell through the system. Clearlyby June 2016, that stock was sold andtheywerereadytorestock.”

The mid-2011 fall came after a decadeof Asian-led demand. The Liv-ex indexof 100 fine wines rose 265 per centbetween December 2003 and its peak inJune 2011, when the release of a poorBordeaux vintage and Chinese mone-tary tightening took effect. China’scrackdownlaunchedin late2012oncor-rupt “gifting”, which often involvedexpensive bottles of wine, kept theindexsubdued.(See charts on page 2)

Private Cellar says its overseas trade

Sterling’s fall iscomplicating lifefor the UK trade,says Jonathan Ray

‘The pastfew monthshave beenaboutcurrencyand notmuch else’

Life after ParkerCan anyone else reachhis level of influence?CRITICS GIVE THEIR VIEWS Page 4

Hong Kong hangoverBritish merchants facelocal challengersASIA Page 3

Saturday December 17 2016

sales remain strong. With demand notjust for first growths but across theboard — mid-range Bordeaux, Bur-gundy, Rhône and Italy — Ms Skinnerthinks that it is bona fide drinkers andnot just investorswhoarebuying.

As in other industries, from food towatches, manufacturers will resetprices to match sterling’s new level, saysJoss Fowler of merchants RenaissanceVintners. “We’re more currency tradersthan wine merchants now,” he says.“One could argue that the fine winemarket has been in the doldrums for afew years and that this is the beginningof a recovery. This may well be the casebut the past few months have beenaboutcurrencyandnotmuchelse.”

This becomes more significant overthe next few months as new wines arereleased — 2015 Burgundy in Januarynext year and 2016 Bordeaux in April —and sterling nurses a loss of 10 per centfromitspre-referendumprice.

Both wines seem strong, reports TomCave of Berry Bros & Rudd. “Red Bur-gundy in particular is being talkedabout as one of those once-a-decadesuperstar years for which true Bur-gundy lovers will pay plenty. Althoughearly reports suggest prices will behigh . . . in a vintage as fine as this,wines fromall levelswillbedelicious.”

Mr Fowler suggests that theseContinued on page 3

Red, white andblue: prices arechanging tomatch thepound’s newlevel — Fabio Nodari /

EyeEm/GettyImages

‘More currency traders than merchants’www.ft.com/reports | @ftreports

2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Saturday 17 December 2016

FT Wine Buying & Investing

First Growth 50Haut-BrionLafite RothschildLatourMargauxMouton Rothschild

Second Wines 50Bahans/Clarence Haut-BrionCarruades de LafiteForts LatourPavillon RougePetit Mouton

Sauternes 50ClimensCoutetSuduirautRieussecYquem

Right Bank 50AusoneCheval BlancLafleurPetrusPin

Right Bank 100AngelusClinetClos FourtetConseillanteEglise ClinetEvangile

Left Bank 200BeychevelleCalon SegurCos d’EstournelDucru BeaucaillouDuhart-Milon

Bordeaux 500 (selected)

AngelusAusoneCheval BlancConseillanteHaut-BrionLafite RothschildLafleurLatourLeoville Las CasesLeoville PoyferreMargauxMission Haut-BrionMontroseMouton RothschildPaviePetrusPichon LalandePin

0098, 0082, 90, 95, 98, 009089, 90, 95, 98, 0082, 86, 96, 98, 000082, 90, 96, 0096, 009082, 90, 96, 0082, 89, 90, 009082, 86, 98, 000082, 89, 90, 95, 98, 008298, 00

Bordeaux Legends 50

Champagne vineyard in Hautvillers,where the monk Dom Perignon

produced his champagne. Photo: Francois Nascimbeni/

AFP/Getty Images

RedArmand Rousseau, ChambertinComte Vogue, Musigny VVJean Grivot, Clos VougeotLambrays, Clos LambraysPonsot, Clos Roche VV

WhiteBonneau Martray, Corton-CharlemagneComtes Lafon, Meursault Charmes*Laflaive Pul Mont ClavoillonLeflaive, Batard-MontrachetBouchard, Chevalier-Montrachet

Domaine de la Romanée-ContiEchezeauxGrands EchezeauxRichebourgRomanee-ContiRomanee-Saint-VivantTache

Burgundy 150

Southern RhoneBeaucastel, Chateauneuf Du PapeClos Papes, Chateauneuf Du PapeJanasse, Chateauneuf Du Pape VVPegau, Chateauneuf Du Pape ReserveeVieux Telegraphe, Chateauneuf Du Pape

Northern RhoneChapoutier, Ermitage PavillonJean-Louis Chave, HermitageGuigal, La La’s (aggregated)Jaboulet, Hermitage ChapelleGuigal, Cote Rotie Ampuis

Rhone 100

Bollinger, Grande AnneeKrug, BrutLouis Roederer, CristalLouis Roederer, Cristal RoseMoet & Chandon, Dom PerignonMoet & Chandon, Dom Perignon Rose

Champagne 50Philipponnat, Clos GoissesPol Roger, Sir Winston ChurchillRuinart, Dom RuinartSalon, MesnilTaittinger, Comtes ChampagneTaittinger, Comtes Champagne Rose

* Until 09

Harvesting grapes by hand at ChateauLafleur in the Bordeaux regionPhoto: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Nov 2012Chinese anti-corruption crackdown announced

Apr 2012Bordeaux

2011 appears a

poor vintage

Jun 2011Bordeaux 2010

released at record prices, followed by

Chinese austerity policies

Jun 2016EU referendum

result causes sterling to fall

Sep 2008Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Reims

Strasbourg

Perpignan

Nantes

Nice

Dijon

Lyon

Tours

Marseille

ToulouseMontpellier

Paris

Calais

Cherbourg

Orleans

Saint-Etienne

ALSACE

ARMAGNAC

BORDEAUX

BURGUNDY

CHAMPAGNE

COGNAC

JURA

LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON PROVENCE

SAVOIE

SOUTH WEST

LOIRE VALLEY

RHÔNE VALLEY

F R A N C E

Reims

Strasbourg

Perpignan

Nantes

Nice

Dijon

Lyon

Tours

Marseille

ToulouseMontpellier

Paris

Calais

Cherbourg

Orleans

Saint-Etienne

ALSACE

ARMAGNAC

BORDEAUX

BURGUNDY

CHAMPAGNE

COGNAC

JURA

LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON PROVENCE

SAVOIE

SOUTH WEST

LOIRE VALLEY

RHÔNE VALLEY

F R A N C E

FT graphic Source: Liv-ex

The most prestigious chateaux have lagged far behind Burgundy since 2008Performance of the indices by region, rebased (Jan 2008 = 100)

2008 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

Bordeaux 500

Bordeaux Legends 50

Burgundy 150

Champagne 50

‘Legendary’ wines from Bordeaux have left a bitter taste in investors’ mouths, if not in drinkers’

UK fine wine investors have been boosted by weak sterlingLiv-ex Fine Wine 100 index performance by currency rebased (31 Dec 2014 = 100)

2014 2015 2016

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

UK pound

US dollars

Euro

Yen

After years of outperformance the Fine Wine 100 indexhas settled at the lower level of the broader marketPerformance of the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 and 100 indices, rebased (Dec 2003 = 100)

2004 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Liv-ex 100

Liv-ex 1000

Wine regionsof France

Sub-indices and components of the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000Only French wines listed. All wines are the ten most recent physical vintagesunless otherwise specified. Champagne varies by brand.

Saturday 17 December 2016 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 3

FT Wine Buying & Investing

ContributorsHugo GreenhalghWealth correspondent

Alan LivseyLex writer

Debra MeiburgAuthor and Master of Wine

Jonathan RayFreelance journalist

Josh SperoCommissioning editor

Steven BirdDesigner

Alan KnoxPicture editor

For advertising details, contact:Mark Howarth, +44 (0) 20 7873 4885 and

mark.c.howarth@ft.com, or your usual FTrepresentative.

All editorial content in this report isproduced by the FT. Our advertisers haveno influence over or prior sight of thearticles.

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Burgundy and Bordeaux sales areimportant to watch. “If the quality isthere and it sells [to consumers], then itcan give the market a kick-start,” hesays. “If it doesn’t sell, though, then itcanputusbackinsaiddoldrums.”

Toby Herbertson, fine wine buyer atmerchants Goedhuis & Co, agrees. Forhim, the 2016 Bordeaux en primeur(wine futures) campaign will be thebellwether. “Bordeaux takes up themajority of the market . . . and a bad enprimeur campaign can really put themockersonthings.”

It is not a scene of total despair for

Continued from page 1 wine merchants. According to JamieGraham of Brunswick, a case of 12 bot-tles of 2005 Chateau Lafite Rothschildthat was selling in January 2016 forabout £3,600 is now worth around£4,650, while a case of 1996 ChateauMouton Rothschild that was £5,800 inJanuary isnow£8,800.

Mr Herbertson is divided betweenfear and hope. “Long term, who knowswhat’s going to happen, especially if in apost-Brexit world we find trade tariffsimposed?

“But we shouldn’t be too alarmed.Sterling isgoingupandthere’s still a rea-sonableamountofstock.”

‘More currency traders than wine merchants’

I t is 10,000km from Bordeaux toHongKongbutfortwodecadesnowEnglish fine wine merchants havehelped Asian wine lovers solve theproblem of distance. Berry Bros &

RuddandFarrVintnerswereamongtheearliest to establish full-time businessesin Hong Kong in the late 1990s, along-side a handful of Chinese merchants. Adecade later, market deregulation and the abolition of duties were catalysts forother European merchants to set upshop.

Although relations have been conviv-ial, competition is fierce. Some reportedbeing disappointed by their entry intoHong Kong but those who endured wererewarded. Imports of wine in 2015reached HK$10.8bn ($1.4bn), morethan six times the value in 2007, accord-ing to research from the Hong KongTrade Development Council. Euromon-itor International forecasts the Chinesemarket will grow 7 per cent in volumeeach year to 2020. Today, well over adozen of Hong Kong’s 350 importers areEnglish and include some of the mostprestigiousbrands.

This healthy market, bursting withskilled local merchants who have accessto the world’s best wines, begs the ques-tion of whether Hong Kong still needsEngland’sexperts.

For collectors, the argument for trust-ing the English is compelling. The topmerchants have reputations and rela-tionships that extend over more than300 years. BBR, which was founded in1698, holds royal warrants for supplyingwine to the Queen and Prince Charles.Justerini & Brooks, founded in 1749, hasan office in Hong Kong and holds a royalwarrant. These merchants gain privi-leged access to wine at key times, suchas when en primeur vintages (winesbeforetheyarebottled)areputonsale.

Amanda Longworth, BBR’s head ofmarketing and wine services in HongKong, says the company’s reach extendsbeyond en primeur campaigns tounique fine wine parcels (one-off sales):“BBR has more than 9m bottles in ware-houses in the UK. This opens up a worldof wines generally unavailable in HongKong.”

“Buying from a UK merchant is likebeing a kid in a candy store,” says Math-ieu Thibaut, Asia general manager ofmerchantsCorney&Barrow.

Hong Kong’s wine collectors are sig-nificant players in the global luxurymarket and, according to a survey forthe Guide to the Hong Kong Wine Trade(whichIedited), theyrepresentsome37per cent of merchants’ sales. Jo Purcell,managing director for Asia at Farr Vint-ners, says collectors represent the bulkof her business: “Our private customersare big buyers in their own right, somebigger thanmanywholesaleaccounts.”

PrivatecollectorRolandMukschbuysmore than half of his wine from Englishmerchants. “The range of wines on offeris broad and there is a lot of depth in vin-tages,” he says. It is also an inducementto him that the merchants will keep hiswines in their UK “cellars” (bondedwarehouses) for years and that theironline platforms, such as BBX (BerryBrothersExchange), facilitate trading.

The weak pound makes it especiallyattractive to buy from Britain: “The UKoffers a price advantage of around20-40percent,”MrMukschestimates.

Ms Purcell concurs: “For volume buy-ers who are cellaring there, long-term,purchasing from an English merchantmakeseconomicsense.”

Cru World Wine benefits from thebuying power of its global network,which has its roots in England. “UKmerchants bring rich history and depthof relationships that are very helpful toCru when it comes to sourcing and allo-cations,” says Sabrina Hosford, HongKong-based global head of retail salesandmarketingfor theonlineplatform.

Well-kept collections and access to enprimeur wines are one thing but Englishmerchants lack the advantage of speed.They can manage weekly or monthly airfreights upon request and for a fee butsea shipments can take four to sixweeks, a delay that deters some buyers.Hong Kong-based merchants have over-come this obstacle with local logisticsandawiderselectionofwinestohand.

Jason Ginsberg, director at merchantsGinsberg+Chan, says: “Almost all ourcustomers work with the UK trade, butthey come to us when they need winestodrinkimmediately.”

His clients appreciate the personaltouch: “Local and regional customerslike dialogue, tips on where to eat andwhat to drink and they are always look-ingfordeals.”

What local merchants lack in depth,they make up for in diversity. Unre-stricted by overseas decisions, localmerchants can adapt to and drive mar-ket demand. “There are a lot of fabulouswines from around the world that localwine merchants are distributing,” saysMs Longworth of BBR. “We wouldn’thave natural-wine bars if the marketwas only run by UK wine merchants.”(Natural wine is made without chemi-cals and with minimal technologicalintervention.)

Established in Hong Kong in 2001,boutique merchant Altaya Wineshas found a way to work harmoniouslywith English merchants. Founder PauloPong says that, following an initialperiod of “aggressive pricing” fromthe overseas merchants, they now com-pete ina“friendlymanner”.

“Altaya isan importerandwholesaler,so we sometimes work with merchantsto distribute our wines to their privateclients.”

Yvonne Cheung, director of wine atSwire Hotels, which operates luxuryhotels in Hong Kong and China, buysmore than half her stock from localmerchantsbutvalues thedifferentqual-ities of both types of merchant. “TheEnglishpresent themselvesasprovidingauthenticity, a history of professional-ism,”shesays.

“The Hong Kong merchants presentthemselves as smarter, more efficient,competitive,”shesays.

Even if English and Hong Kong mer-chants now work in harmony, obstaclesto their further success loom. AntonioKoo, managing director of wine retailerand wholesaler Ponti Trading in HongKong, predicts wine trading platforms,like those offered by BBR and Liv-ex,might be the downfall of some Englishmerchants’ physical businesses. Theyhave greater transparency, immediacyand connection to other collector-trad-ers,hesays.

Auction houses such as Christie’s andSotheby’s pose a potential threat. Theysold a total $313m of fine wine in HongKong in 2016. “The biggest impact onmerchants will be the auction houseswho are very important now in HongKong given the volume they do,” Mr Kooasserts.

While Ms Cheung questions Englishmerchants’ relevance to wholesale andretail customers, she accepts their

Britishmerchantstake stock inHong Kong

They may have royal warrants but UK namesface some stiff competition, says Debra Meiburg

importance inAsia.“There issomethingof great value in seeing English mer-chants as a pillar of tradition in thissomewhat confused region. They havesuch mixed and powerful histories, butsomehow they have made mercantilismfeel positive here, especially in wine,”she reflects. “The English have pre-sented themselves as a consistentlyamiable, wine-loving group of ‘commer-cialisers’, even amid the most brutal ofcommoditytrading.”

Taking a long view: English expertise is still valued — Dale de lay Rey/AFP/Getty Images

Ronan Sayburn, Master SommelierHead of wines at private members’ club67 Pall Mall, LondonI usually buy a bit of en primeur Bordeaux, Rhôneand Burgundy each year from Uncorked or fromFlint Wines — not grand cru wines for investmentbut village-level Meursault from Domaine desComtes Lafon and Gevrey-Chambertin fromDomaine Dujac aux Combottes for drinking in afew years. In Bordeaux I go for Chateau Feytit-Clinet and Alter Ego de Palmer. I buy from the WineSociety about whom I used to be quite sniffy, thinking them pricey andconservative. In fact, they offer great wines at great prices and a wide selectiontoo, and so I’m very pleased I had a closer look at them.

Sara BachiorriHead sommelier at restaurant Chez Bruce, LondonLast night I opened a bottle of 2014 Puligny-Montrachet, Domaine Blain-Gagnard, which wasrather good with my home-cooked chicken breastand sautéed mushrooms. In general, I drink Rieslingand white Burgundy at home but anythinginteresting is always very welcome. I bought severalGrosses Gewächs Rieslings to lay down recently andthere are various different reds in my tiny cellar too.

I don’t think many of us sommeliers can afford aproper cellar at home and so, sadly, there is little space to lay down fine bottles.As for where I buy my everyday wines, there are some lovely independent shops Irely on for last-minute purchases.

Selene GenovesiHead sommelier at the Pig Hotel, DevonI am Italian, so I do occasionally go for white winesfrom my motherland, purely because I mightrecognise a not-very-well-known indigenous grapeor remote producer. I buy good wines from the localindependents and also from Waitrose which we allknow has a wonderful selection. Lidl has a veryinteresting portfolio at the moment, too. I found notonly a very decent blend of Chardonnay and Inzoliathere, but also a fairly drinkable Amarone dellaValpolicella, believe it or not. However, I also enjoy full-bodied red Spanish winesand Californian and Australian Cabernet Sauvignons. In the first instance I havefound a few examples in Waitrose and Tesco.

Yohann PinolHead sommelier at Wiltons, LondonI trained in Tain-l’Hermitage, so love northern RhôneSyrah, especially wines such as St Joseph “Cuvée duPapy” from Stéphane Montez and St Joseph “Reflet”from François Villard, which I had with venison aupoivre the other night. Spectacular! I like the secondwines of top Bordeaux chateaux: more affordable

than the grands vins but well made and easier todrink young. As for fine wine, I have laid down

some Côte-Rôtie Lancement from Stephane Ogier,some Chave Hermitage and a few Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape,Vega Sicilia Unico and Penfolds Grange. But they are in France, out oftemptation’s way!Interviews by Jonathan Ray

Corkers! What top sommeliers are drinking

’One can see Englishmerchants as a pillar oftradition in this somewhatconfused region’

4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Saturday 17 December 2016

FT Wine Buying & Investing

When the gavel came down for thefinal time, the sale total stood at justunder $22m. More than 20,000 bidsfrom 740 people competed for the2,729 lots up for sale from USbillionaire Bill Koch’s wine cellar.Sotheby’s sold every single bottleoffered over three days in May, perhapsthe most significant wine auction of theyear.

At the high end, buyers — bothChinese and from around the world —are looking to Burgundy. “Individualswho purchased cases for under £1,000just seven or eight years ago are nowseeing these same cases valued at up to£10,000,” says Gary Boom, chiefexecutive of fine wine merchantsBordeaux Index.

Yet he feels the Burgundy boom maybe overstated: “Burgundy will neverdisplace Bordeaux in volume terms asthere simply isn’t enough wine fromBurgundy to go around. However, topBurgundy remains the most sought-after wine in the world and this, alliedwith the very small productionvolumes of the past four or five years,has driven prices ever higher.”

It is a case of availability, says MaxLalondrelle, fine wine buying directorat merchants Berry Bros & Rudd.“Burgundy only represents a fractionof the Bordeaux turnover both in salesby volume and value.”

The days of the mania for Bordeauxhave passed — at one point in 2011,Bordeaux first growth was nudging£12,000 a case; today it would costapproximately £4,000, according toLiv-ex figures. Bordeaux is graduallyreturning to favour, though. Chateau

Margaux 1996, seen as a “bellwether”wine, is 40 per cent more expensivethan at the start of the year, with a 12-bottle case now selling forapproximately £6,200, according towine-searcher.com.

Buyers from Asia, who partly fuelledthe mania, remain visible in themarket. Reports last year suggestedthat the Chinese had bought more than100 Bordeaux vineyards. China is thefifth-largest consumer of wine in theworld, consuming 2.1bn bottles in2015, up 3.2 per cent on 2014,according to the InternationalOrganisation of Vine and Wine.

In November, Sotheby’s sold aprivate continental collection for justunder £900,000 — nudging slightlyahead of the presale estimate. “Greatchateaux from outstanding vintagesincluding 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2010were fiercely fought over,” says StephenMould, Sotheby’s European head ofwine, of the overall sale. “Elsewhere,red Burgundy from Domaine de laRomanée-Conti, Armand Rousseau,Dugat-Py and de Vogüé was in highdemand, while collectors pursuedwhite Burgundy from DomaineLeflaive and other growers with equalpassion.”

Chris Smith, investment manager atthe Wine Investment Fund, saysinvestors and buyers need to lookbeyond the headlines. “There arealways headline-catching auctionsaround the world but these constitute avery small percentage of overallturnover in the fine wine market, mostof which is traded by merchants andfunds such as ourselves.”

Burgundyboomcontinues insaleroomAuctions The days ofmania for Bordeauxhave passed, writesHugo Greenhalgh

Gevrey Chambertin, Clos St Jacques,2012, up for auction at Sotheby’s inNovemberT he internet, coupled with

smartphone portability,provides so much informa-tion at our fingertips that aworld of wine experts is

there forus.AppssuchasVivinoorweb-sites like Wine Searcher offer reviewsfrom experts as well as enthusiasts,along with price history. Liv-ex, with itsindices,offers long-termpricedata.

It was not always so, of course. A fewdecades ago, not many consumers hadthe depth of knowledge of, say, a HughJohnson or a Jancis Robinson, accumu-lated over decades of tastings and estatevisits. Haughty restaurant sommeliersmadediners tremble.

For those oenophiles interested inearning a return on their wine, however,no person has influenced the marketmore than US critic Robert Parker.Much to the initial dismay of some of hispeers, he simply distilled his conclu-sions — on the finest wines of Bordeaux—intoanumber, ratingthemoutof100.

Bordeaux is vital to the wine tradeand Mr Parker is vital to Bordeaux.Through his newsletter, the Wine Advo-cate, Mr Parker displayed his knack forsometimes controversial predictions,such as his positive call on the 1982 Bor-deaux vintage, and laid the foundationfor three decades of adulation and imi-tation by the wine community. MrParker’s 100-point rating for ChateauHaut-Brion1989—reiteratedonsixsep-arate tastings over the years — meansthis commands a significant premiumon other Haut-Brion vintages. Its mar-ket price is 139 per cent above the 2005,the next highest of the last 20 vintages.He eschewed advertising from the winetradetomaintain independence.

Once he had established his reputa-tion, no merchant or wine investordared ignore him. When Mr Parkerwrote in November 2014 that he had

scored the well-regarded, but lowerranked, Haut Bailly 2009 at 100 points,its case price jumped 45 per cent inthreedays.

By scoring a maker’s vintage between50 and 100 points, an industry-wideranking for all fine wine developed.Top-rated wine effectively sold itself or— if burdened with a score below 85 —not. Other critics had to follow and pro-vide an exact score, even when a rangeof points might not be fair to the wine.Some have copied the 100-point scale; aminoritykeepit to20points.

This year Mr Parker decided to stopthe gruelling annual review of the Bor-

deaux en primeur market — winefutures — from the spring tastings. Itwas at these that Mr Parker could makeor break a vintage. He is not disappear-ing entirely, though, and will reviewotherwinesofBordeauxandCalifornia.

Replacing him is difficult and not justdue to his disproportionate influence onbuyers’ opinions. The world of wine haschanged in the past decade and, in away, the pendulum has shifted backtowards the merchants. “Customersincreasingly ask for help in that indeter-minate area between 85 and 96 points[good to very good],” says Dan Jago,chief executive of London’s Berry Bros &Ruddwinemerchants.

Still, a number helps consumers morethan purple prose from writers. As MsRobinson, the FT’s own wine critic, putsit, “Who really gets up in the morningand tells themselves that they simplymust find a wine that tastes of fennelseed,grilledwatermelonandgardenia?”

A numerical rating system is impor-tant for merchants and investors. Risingprices throughout the 1980s and 1990sencouraged collectors to morph intoinvestors.

Between 1987 and the beginning ofthe new millennium the Liv-ex FineWine 100 Investable index gained over14 per cent on a compounded annualrate. Its growth this year — up 24 percent — has left the FTSE All-Share indexfordust,morethandoubling it.

“Everyone in the trade is crying outfor the next [Parker],” says Ella Lister,head of online ratings site Wine Lister.Her website provides one, blending thereviews from her selection of top critics— Britain’s Ms Robinson, America’sAntonio Galloni and France’s MichelBettane and Thierry Desseauve — withother measures of the strength of a pro-ducer’s brand and price data to create ascoreoutof1,000points.

Parkerism is not dead yet. His heir onthe en primeur market at the WineAdvocate is Neal Martin. James Con-nolly of wine merchants Drinksmanthinks Mr Parker’s “brand and influ-ence” will endure under Mr Martin’stutelage.

It is worth remembering that a “post-Parker world” only refers to a narrowrange of wines, namely the latest offer-ings from the top chateaux in Bordeaux.For those, and other regions, there willalways be experts. The question iswhether consumers want somethingmore than a vox populi for fine wine.Very likely they do. Mr Parker’s legacyhas provided the hard balance of quan-titative rating systems against softer,qualitativenarratives.

Parker leaves a pointed legacyRatings The questionis whether anyone cansucceed the world’smost influential critic,reports Alan Livsey

Drinking by numbers: Robert Parker pioneered a ratings system that could move the market — Camera Press/Andrew Crowley/Telegraph

When he scored the HautBailly 2009 at 100 points,its case price jumped45 per cent in three days