Only a few palates in the world are powerful enough to move markets and wine. Investors need to know who and how.
How can something as complex and personal as the appreciation of fine wine be rated in a way to influence winemakers, consumers, and investors? Enjoying wine is a very individual experience, after all, our taste buds are as unique as our wine knowledge.
The professionals who are dedicated to understanding and interpreting the world of wine to provide a quality guide that works for those seeking a pointer to their perfect pasta partner through to wine merchants acquiring £millions of fine wines for their customers, are rare and face a not-insignificant challenge.
These vinous prophets taste and publish their notes on hundreds, if not thousands, of wines each year and have archives of valuable information that the trade and interested consumers can subscribe to for a quality guide to wine purchasing.
What do investors want to know from wine critics?
Wine investors are keenly interested in the factors that will influence the value of their wine assets. Key elements such as provenance, brand and storage conditions are outside of the critics’ realm of influence. However, the critics’ view is all important when it comes to the evaluation of how a wine tastes and its quality score compared to its vintage peers.
How do critics evaluate fine wine?
To achieve an expert opinion on the quality of wine, a world-renowned critic has encyclopaedic knowledge of a wine growing region, the vineyards, winemakers and their wines. Years of research, travelling and tasting wines, has provided a special few with an intimate understanding of the inherent qualities of each wine they review that allows them to provide a trustworthy rating.
What factors influence wine quality?
Winemakers deal with constant and variable factors each year that shape the quality of each vintage. Those elements are:
- the vineyard terroir; soil type, aspect, drainage
- grape varietals, vine age and condition
- the local regulations in terms of grape types, irrigation control if allowed at all and other viticultural requirements
- biodiversity planning and delivery
- the blend of grapes dependent on growing conditions and the harvest outcome
- cellar management techniques
- storage conditions including during transfer once bottled
- climate.
Wine critics and climate change
What arises between a dormant winter vine and the embryonic wine going into vats after harvest is largely shaped by climate and this is adding a new dimension as the world warms up. Winemakers are having to harvest earlier and consider introducing grape varieties that cope well with warmer summers and more extreme weather conditions as devastating frosts and intense rainfall also become routine features of the growing season.
Critics are monitoring the outcome of these changing patterns on rising alcohol and sugar levels and the impact on taste, aging potential and quality as regular warmer summers evolve the characteristics of even the most highly regarded investment wines.
How do wine critics rate fine wine?
Ratings provide a simple guide as to how wines compare in quality, whether that be those of the same year or a single wine reviewed in the light of previous vintages from the same producer. Based on a critic’s expert knowledge wines are given a quality score.
The first universal scoring system was established by the pre-eminent critic, Robert Parker Jnr. He published his tasting notes and scores through The Wine Advocate, which Parker founded in 1978 and sold to Michelin in 2019.
The Wine Advocate ratings:
96 - 100 = Extraordinary
90 - 95 = Outstanding
80 - 89 = Above average to very good
70 - 79 = Average
69 - 69 = Below average
50 - 59 = Unacceptable
European fine wine critics have traditionally applied a rating system out of 20 points, Jancis Robinson MW currently operates this system.
Critics view their scores as a comparative indicator only and urge consumers to read their tasting notes to really understand the personality and style of a wine. Ultimately, the secondary market has come to regard the quality scores of a small number of the highest regarded wine critics as an important value benchmark.
Who are the current top critics for wine investors?
- Neal Martin
- Jancis Robinson MW
- James Suckling
- Antonio Galloni
- Lisa Perotti-Brown MW
- William Kelly
- Jeb Dunnuck
- Monica Larner
Robert Parker Jnr’s opinion still holds great sway with the market, despite his retirement in 2019. Parker’s 100-point wines are likely to always be highly collectable and valuable as there will never be another Parker 100-pointer created.
When do the critics rate investment wines?
The critics will taste wines throughout their lifetime but there are a few key tasting events that the market and investors look out for as valuable quality indicators. These are:
- In barrel scores of en primeur wines in the Spring after harvest
- In bottle scores shortly after bottling when the wines are around 2 – 3 years old
- Top investment wines are traditionally tasted by critics at their 10-year anniversary.
The critics scores are news-worthy and will be commented on in trade press and on key platforms such as Liv-ex.
Due to the scale of Bordeaux in particular, the opinion of key critics is a highly valuable guide for the market and an important factor for the producers when setting the release prices of their en primeur wines each year.
The wine trade and critics will be tasting the Bordeaux 2022 vintage in-barrel at the Chateaux in late April and their scores will be published in early May.
For more information on the role of fine wine critics and how we utilise the information they provide for wine investors, speak to a member of our expert team on 0203 384 2262. To get the latest information on wine investment trends see our latest Fine Wine Market Report.