What determines the value of wine? The short answer is Robert Parker Jnr, the world’s most powerful wine critic. He has the power to make or break a vineyard. The US wine expert has a proven history of predicting top wines before his peers.

Parker scores wines out of 100, if a vintage tops 98, you can be guaranteed it will soon be in high demand and its prices will shoot through the roof as a result.

Robert Parker JNR, has undertaken his Wine Tasting for the En Primeurs 2010 as well as a re-taste and score of 2008.

Amongst his high end scores, he has valued the Lafite Rothschild 2010 with a 98-100 out of 100 - this is one of the wines preferred by the wealthy Chinese therefore never being able to reach its prime without being drunk for fun!

Over recent years the prices have been heavily pronounced, and the Lafite Rothschild 2008 carved its place in the wine investing history by rising five times since its En Primeur release 2009, where it was worth £3,000. It currently sells for £15,500.

The lesser known brands have also performed well. In comparison, for an online saver raising a mere 1.85%, the popular wines are maturing at near 100% a year.

Top 2 wines for investment right now would be Chateau Lafite Rotschild and Chateau Latour following a recent Wine Expo in China.

There has never been a better time for investments in wine. Over the last ten years, investors in the finest vintages have watched prices absolutely sky-rocket. Many have called it the investment of the decade. Others have celebrated 800% plus gains on their treasured purchases.

At a time when the mainstream financial markets are in turmoil, wine offers consistently strong returns outperforming other traditional assets and investments. It has many advantages over other forms of investments including being stable, Capital Gains Tax exempt, easily realisable, consumable, low risk & portable.

It is estimated that of the £110m Bordeaux En Primeurs sold last year, approximately £30m worth went through to Hong Kong in comparison to the previous year which was just £10m. With the 2010 Vintage En Primeurs having been now tasted by Robert Parker JNR, this year is set to see a substantial increase again in demand from the Chinese.

With global demands for Bordeaux Fine Wines increasing the value, analysts are envisaging the Bordeaux prices will not fall even with a double dip in the UK economy.

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