Fine Wine Prices Fall As Bordeaux And Burgundy Weaken, Says Liv-ex

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Optimism has given way to foreboding on the fine wine market as a new report shows falling prices for top Burgundy and Bordeaux in 2019.

New figures from Liv-ex show declines of between 3% and 7% across several indices tracking prices of top Burgundy and Bordeaux in the first 11 months of 2019, in sterling currency.

The main Liv-ex 100 index also fell by 2.5% over the same period, said the group in its 2019 fine wine market review. However, in US and Hong Kong dollar terms, the Liv-ex 100 was up by around 1%.

Liv-ex doesn’t represent the entire secondary market, but its figures suggest collectors have become more cautious.

‘The second half of the year looks different to the first half,’ Liv-ex co-founder Justin Gibbs told Decanter magazine’s January 2020 issue Market Watch prior to publication of the group’s fine wine market review.

‘A general sense of wellbeing has been replaced by one of concern.’

A new US import tariff, political unrest in Hong Kong and concerns about how Brexit will affect sterling currency have created uncertainty in the world’s major fine wine hubs.

‘These are all conditions that can, and will, change but for now it is tin hat time,’ said analyst Miles Davis, of the Wine Owners trading exchange, in a recent blog post.

Several market analysts had already been concerned about a stock build-up of younger Bordeaux vintages and signs of momentum slowing in Burgundy.

Yet, Liv-ex data shows the fine wine market has also continued to broaden in 2019 as investors and collectors have sought to diversify their cellars.

More than 7,000 different wines have been traded on Liv-ex in 2019, double the number traded in 2015 and up from 5,700 last year.

By Chris Mercer
December 11, 2019
Source and Complete Article: Decanter.com