The Liv-ex Bordeaux 500 is Liv-ex’s most comprehensive index for Bordeaux wines. It represents the price movement of 500 leading wines (50 wines and their past 10 physical vintages) from the region and is calculated monthly using the Liv-ex Mid Price.
We recently highlighted the relative performance of the Bordeaux 500 sub-indices, observing none of the Bordeaux 500 sub-indices were positive over a one-year period. However, from early 2020 there was a semblance of recovery – four out of six sub-indices turned positive year-to-date, seen below. Additionally, we showed the top performing wine brands but how does this look when broken down further?
Of the 50 brands represented in the Bordeaux 500 only 13 have risen since July 2019, with only four gaining at least 2% over the period. The top twenty movers are shown in the chart below. Wines from the Right Bank 100 make up a majority of the top spots, but it’s Smith Haut Lafitte from the Left Bank 200 takes the top spot – additional wines from the LB200 sub-index wrap up the top ten.
A look at the vintage level reveals that the only one vintage, 2008 has risen on average, although marginally at 0.33%. There have been no major score upgrades of 2008s in the past year, but Neal Martin did confirm the high scores of Eglise Client 2008 and Pontet Canet 2008, awarding a 95 and 92 point respectively. They have since seen price increases of 5.1% and 1.8% respectively, over the past year.
The 2009 vintage has declined the most on average, down 4.70% over the past year. Of the six wines from the vintage that have moved positively, three were from the Left Bank 200 – Palmer, Pichon Baron, and Calon Segur.
It comes as no surprise that many of the wine brands that have declined over the past year come from the worst performing sub-indices. Chateau La Fleur-Petrus, the worst performer and part of the Right Bank 100, recently saw its 2016 vintage re-scored to a 16.5 from a 17- by Jancis Robinson.
