- The number of English wines exposed on the market has continued to grow to new heights this year.
- Trade for English wine has slowed in 2022 but is still far above pre-pandemic levels.
- Chile, New Zealand and Lebanon are among the countries with more trade.
English wine has been in the headlines recently, with Nyetimber predicting a record sparkling wine harvest and Chapel Down reporting strong sales and business growth.
On the secondary market, however, England remains a very small player. Its trade share within the ‘Rest of the World’ category is consistently lower than that of other countries such as Chile, New Zealand and Lebanon.
Nonetheless, the number of wines exposed (i.e. LWINs with a bid or offer against them) has risen from 14 in 2021 to 23 year-to-date, which is greater than in 2020.
*LWINs are unique 7, 11, 16 or 18-digit codes. The 7-digit code, the LWIN7, refers to the wine itself (i.e. the producer and brand, grape or vineyard). Whereas an 11-digit code (LWIN11) refers to the wine and vintage. The longer codes include information about the bottle and pack size.
Outside of the UK itself, Asia and the US have been the biggest buyers of English wine. The four top-traded wines this year so far have all been from Gusbourne Estate in Kent.
Trade has been led by its Blanc de Blancs 2015, Brut Reserve 2018 and then two still wines, the ‘Guinevere’ Chardonnay 2017 and Pinot Noir 2019.
Lower trade activity
On the other hand, trade around English wine has been falling slightly since it reached a record high in 2020.
So far this year, trade for English wine by value is down 3.9% versus the same period in 2021 and trade by volume is down 17.4%.
With two full months to go before the end of the year, there is still time to make up some of this gap. Even if trade does not outpace last year’s total, it is still clear that secondary market demand for English wine has come a long way in the last four years.
Liv-ex analysis is drawn from the world’s most comprehensive database of fine wine prices. The data reflects the real time activity of Liv-ex’s 600 merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £80m of bids and offers across 16,000 wines.
