The month of June saw the start and finish of the compressed Bordeaux 2019 En Primeur campaign. Major releases came to the market in a flurry, many at significant discounts to 2018. The campaign has, overall, been considered a success particularly given that there were suggestions that the release would never happen at all. Indeed, many in the trade were against the idea.
But despite the renewed vigour surrounding Bordeaux it was not enough to lift the region’s market share which once again fell below 50% of trade by value – 47.1%. En Primeur trade made up 18.5% of trade by value and 14.8% by volume for the region.
Fine Wine prices rose over the month, even as most eyes were focused squarely on the newest releases. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 rose 1.15% to 299.65, leaving the index down just 1% for the first half of 2020. The index was helped by a softening of sterling mid-month, but the currency strengthened to end June relatively flat – off 0.42% against the Euro and up 0.45% against the Dollar.
Trade volumes for the month nudged the annual high set in April this year and distinct LWIN11s traded rose to a new record (1,559 wines with vintage). Asia based buying was at its most active since January, pre-Chinese New Year and the beginning of the global lockdown.
With the first half of 2020 behind us, Liv-ex will be releasing a series of blogs highlighting the trends of the past six months. Despite the challenges (and those still to come in the form of Brexit and US tariffs) Fine Wine has proven a strong hedge against the volatility of global financial markets. Something to cheer.
