Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T01:26:05.629Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Who Will Replace Parker? A Copula Function Analysis of Bordeaux En Primeur Wine Raters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2019

Don Cyr*
Affiliation:
Goodman School of Business, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada, and Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) at Brock University
Lester Kwong
Affiliation:
Goodman School of Business, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada, and Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) at Brock University; e-mail: [email protected].
Ling Sun
Affiliation:
Goodman School of Business, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada; e-mail: [email protected].
*
e-mail: [email protected] (corresponding author).

Abstract

The influence of the wine rater Robert Parker Jr. on Bordeaux wine extended over a 40-year period, with a particular impact on en primeur wine prices. Consequently, his announcement in 2015 that he would no longer rate en primeur wines creates some uncertainty for many chateaux that have purposely designed their production with his palate and preferences in mind. Although the wine rater Neal Martin was named by Parker to be his successor in terms of en primeur wine ratings, there are several other wine critics who have consistently rated en primeur wines over several years. Consequently, we employ copula function analysis to explore which wine critics’ ratings exhibit the closest linear and nonlinear relationship, for right bank en primeur wines, with those of Parker. The study employs data over the period of 2005 through 2012, during which time several wine critics, including Neal Martin for the period of 2010–2012, rated en primeur wines alongside Parker. Our results indicate that of the wine critics that continue to rate en primeur wines, the ratings of James Suckling exhibit the highest rank correlation and also bivariate upper tail dependence, identified through copula function analysis, with those of Parker. (JEL Classifications: C19, G13, L66)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We are grateful to Ms. Sara Yazji for valuable research assistance. We also thank the attendees of the 2018 American Association of Wine Economics Annual Meeting, Karl Storchmann, and an anonymous referee for their valuable comments. All remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.

References

Ali, H. H., Lecocq, S., and Visser, M. (2010). The impact of gurus: Parker grades and en primeur wine prices. Journal of Wine Economics, 5(1), 2239.Google Scholar
Ashenfelter, O. (2010). Predicting the quality and prices of Bordeaux wine. Journal of Wine Economics, 5(1), 4052.Google Scholar
Berg, D. (2009). Copula goodness-of-fit testing: An overview and power comparison. European Journal of Finance, 15(7–8), 675701.Google Scholar
Cherubini, U., Luciano, E., and Vecchiato, W. (2004). Copula Methods in Finance. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
Cyr, D., Kwong, L., and Sun, L. (2017a). An exploration of the relationship between Robert Parker and Neal Martin en primeur wine ratings. American Association of Wine Economists 11th Annual Conference, June 2017, Padua, Italy.Google Scholar
Cyr, D., Kwong, L., and Sun, L. (2017b). An examination of tail dependence in Bordeaux futures prices and Parker ratings. Journal of Wine Economics, 12(3), 252266.Google Scholar
Demmond, C. (2016). Neal Martin is the new Robert Parker for Bordeaux. Food & Wine, 19 April. Retrieved from http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/neal-martin-new-robert-parker-bordeaux.Google Scholar
Fermanian, J. D. (2013). An overview of the goodness-of-fit test problem for copulas. In Jaworski, P., Durante, F. and Härdle, W. K. (eds.), Copulae in Mathematical and Quantitative Finance, 6189. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Verlag GmbH.Google Scholar
Genest, C., Remillard, B., and Beaudoin, D. (2009). Goodness-of-fit tests for copulas: A review and a power study. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 44(2), 199213.Google Scholar
Hasebe, T. (2013). Copula-based maximum-likelihood estimation of sample-selection models. Stata Journal, 13(3), 547573.Google Scholar
Jones, G. V., and Storchmann, K. (2001). Wine market prices and investment under uncertainty: An econometric model for Bordeaux crus classes. Agricultural Economics, 26(2), 115133.Google Scholar
Livsey, A. (2016). Wine expert Robert Parker leaves a pointed legacy. Financial Times, 16 December. Accessed at https://www.ft.com/content/73ea0bfa-afd1-11e6-9c37-5787335499a0.Google Scholar
Lyons, W. (2015). Robert Parker steps down from Bordeaux futures. The Wall Street Journal, 26 February. Accessed at http://www.wsj.com/articles/robert-parker-steps-down-from-bordeaux-futures-1424966697.Google Scholar
Mendick, R., Finnigan, L., and Chazan, D. (2016). Former Essex schoolboy turned world's most powerful wine critic. The Telegraph, 19 April. Accessed at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/19/former-essex-schoolboy-turned-worlds-most-powerful-wine-critic/.Google Scholar
Millar, R. (2015). End of an era: Parker hands Martin the reins for Bordeaux primeurs. The Drinks Business, 26 February. Accessed at https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2015/02/parker-hands-en-primeur-tasting-duties-to-neal-martin.Google Scholar
Millar, R. (2018). Parrotti-Brown awards eight 100s to Bordeaux. The Drinks Business, 3 December. Accessed at https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/12/perrotti-brown-awards-eight-100s-to-bordeaux-2016/.Google Scholar
Noparumpa, T., Kazaz, B., and Webster, S. (2015). Wine futures and advanced selling under quality uncertainty. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 17(3), 116.Google Scholar
Okhrin, O. (2012). Fitting high-dimensional copulae to data. In Duan, J .C., Härdle, W. K., and Gentle, J. E. (eds.), Handbook of Computational Finance, 469501. Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Science & Business Media.Google Scholar
Parker, R. J. (2017). Robert Parker wine advocate announces new reviewers and increased coverage & events for 2018. The Wine Industry Advisor, 27 November. Accessed at https://www.wineindustryadvisor.com/2017/11/27/wine-advocate-new-reviewers-coverage.Google Scholar
Pickford, J. (2016). Critic Neal Martin named as successor to influential wine guru. Financial Times, 25 April. Accessed at https://www.ft.com/content/cae36130-0a0a-11e6-b0f1-61f222853ff3.Google Scholar
Shaw, L. (2017a). Neal Martin leaves the wine advocate for vinous. The Drinks Business, 20 November. Accessed at https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/11/neal-martin-leaves-the-wine-advocate-for-vinous/.Google Scholar
Shaw, L. (2017b). Perrotti-Brown named Bordeaux reviewer at the wine advocate. The Drinks Business, 28 November. Accessed at https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/11/perrotti-brown-named-bordeaux-reviewer-at-the-wine-advocate/.Google Scholar
Sklar, A. (1959). Fonctions de répartition à n dimensions et leurs marges. Publications de l'Institut de Statistique de l'Université de Paris 8, 299–231.Google Scholar
Staveley, P. (2018). Fine wine investment post Parker skirmishes. The Drinks Business, 5 March. Accessed at https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/03/fine-wine-investment-post-parker-skirmishes/.Google Scholar