In October, interest in US wines helped drive the region’s trade value to its highest month on record. With general interest in the overall market, October closed as the second largest month of trade in the past ten years. The Rhone, Australia, Italy, and Spain all benefitted from the increase of weekend trades, which due to trade automation, also reached an all-time high in the month.
The Union Des Grand Crus de Bordeaux held their annual tasting in London, presenting the 2018 vintage in bottle, with a unique set of social distancing measures in place. First impressions suggest the vintage to be very good but not great perhaps explaining the price action since release – a drop in market prices for 43 of the 47 Bordeaux 500 wines that were released En Primeur.
Prices of physical Bordeaux however increased in October which, with the help of the Rhone and Champagne, pushed the Liv-ex 100 upwards 1.16% for the month. As shown in the chart below, after starting the year on a downward drift, the Liv-ex 100 has now had five continuous months of gains and increased 4.01% year-to-date.
For the third consecutive month, Bordeaux trade share has held under 40%. Unique wines traded (LWIN11) rose above September’s number by just one wine to set a new high for the year while volumes held near the highs set in September, a month full of new releases.
