- The Fine Wine 100 is climbing back to its former high of summer 2011.
- Champagnes led the best-performing labels in May.
A year of gains
The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 achieved its twelfth consecutive month of gains this May, rising 0.72% to close at 335.25.
The Fine Wine 100 is up 13.2% over the past year despite the headwinds the market has faced; Covid-19, US tariffs, Brexit, inflation, currency swings and stock market palpitations, to name a few.
The Fine Wine 100 is now just 8.1% off the peak which it reached in June 2011.
A sparkling month
Monthly Champagne trade share by value reached a one-year high last month as vintage Champagnes, both white and rosé, reached all-time high market prices.
May was also one of the most diverse months for Champagne trade; more than 100 LWIN7s changed hands, an occurrence that has happened only three times before (all of which were in the last six months).
Louis Roederer’s Cristal 2008 led the gains for the month, with its Market Price rising by 6.5%. Other Champagnes that saw gains were Moët & Chandon’s Dom Pérignon 2008 and Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne 2007, up 5.1% and 4.3% respectively.
The top non-sparkling wines to see gains were Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 (+6.2%), Armand Rousseau Chambertin 2015 (+6.0), Léoville Poyferré 2010 (+5.8%) and Pontet Canet 2009 (+4.7%).
Clos Papes, Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2016 and Angélus 2010 rounded out the bottom of the table, down 5.4% and 5.2% respectively.
En Primeur 2020 began
The Bordeaux 2020 En Primeur campaign began in early May and the market has seen numerous releases, many of which Liv-ex has covered in detail using our Fair Value analysis.
Along with the wines came a number of critical assessments of the vintage. Reports and scores pointed to the 2020 vintage trailing 2019 in quality but surpassing that of 2018.
Critics urged readers, however, not to generalise the vintage, as pockets of the 2020 vintage are showing more promise than the previous two vintages.
