“Colin Hay”: has a very interesting “forthcoming article”:http://ser.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/mwq007v1 (paywalled) in the _Socio-Economic Review_ on the strong role that hierarchy plays in Bourdeaux wine markets.
bq. The en primeur market had been relatively quiet until this point; it now exploded into activity, arguably, benefiting those chateaux still to release their prices who might cash in, as it were, on their high Parker scores in a way that their early releasing peers were unable to do. Yet, judging by the aggregate data, what is interesting, is how few of them did so—as the following more detailed analysis of the 2008 campaign makes clear. This, I think, might again be taken as evidence of the persistence of strong norms of appropriate behaviour and conduct and, indeed, of the densely institutionalized and status-oriented character of this market place, even in the face of the globalization of the process of price formation.
And:
bq. As a set of institutions, the Bordeaux en primeur market is no longer the exclusive preserve of the chateaux and the 1855 classification; it has found a place for at least one North American wine critic [HF – Robert Parker] —acting in a manner analogous to a credit-rating agency in a more conventional futures market. Indeed, all the evidence suggests that the role he plays is crucial to the capacity for Bordeaux to continue to sell its wines en primeur.