- The Liv-ex 100 fell 1.4% in January.
- This was its biggest dip since November 2015, following a quarter of smaller declines.
- The best-performing labels all came from the 2019 vintage.
*made using the Liv-ex Charting Tool
The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 declined 1.4% in January, closing at 413.82. The index fell consistently in the final quarter of 2022 and started the new year with its biggest decline since November 2015 (when it fell 1.5%).
The market was somewhat distracted this month with Chinese New Year holidays, Burgundy’s 2021 campaign (which proved challenging from both volume and price point of views). These two events and more general concerns about the macro-economic picture, kept buyers at bay.
Of the 100 wines in the index, 62 saw their prices decline this month, as shown in the chart below.
The bid to offer ratio on Liv-ex, an indicator of market sentiment, sits at 0.39. The ratio compares the total value of bids (firm commitments to buy) to the total value of offers (firm commitments to sell) on the market.
The ratio’s aim is to indicate the level of demand that exists in the secondary market. Historically, a ratio above 0.5 tends to indicate the beginning of an uptrend in the market, or at the very least acts as a sign of price stability.
January’s top performers
As part of an annual review, the index components were updated last month to reflect the current activity in the fine wine market. The Liv-ex 100 saw the addition of three Champagnes and five new Burgundy labels, while the number of Bordeaux wines was reduced.
The best-performing wines, shown in the table above, all came from the 2019 vintage. Two of the top five were recent additions to the index this month: Scarecrow Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 and Château Lynch-Bages 2019.
The biggest riser was Scarecrow Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, which was up 15.8%. The wine boasts 100-points from Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW (at the time writing for The Wine Advocate) and 99-points from Antonio Galloni (Vinous).
The Bordeaux labels in the fourth and fifth spot also received 100-point scores from major critics. Jeb Dunnuck awarded Château Lynch-Bages 2019 a perfect score, calling it ‘stunningly good’.
Château Lafleur 2019 was also awarded 100-points from Dunnuck, as well as William Kelley (The Wine Advocate), James Suckling, and Neal Martin (Vinous).
The Southwold tasting of the 2019 has just taken place and early reports suggest that it has been marked as one of Bordeaux’s truly great vintages.
With updated scores due to be published in the coming weeks, the vintage looks certain to once again be in the spotlight.
What is the Liv-ex 100 index?
The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index is the industry leading benchmark. It represents the price movement of 100 of the most sought-after fine wines on the world’s most active and liquid marketplace from France, Italy, USA, Australia and Spain. Stretching back over 20 years, the Liv-ex 100 is quoted on Bloomberg and Reuters screens.
All Liv-ex indices are calculated using our Mid Price; the mid-point between the highest live bid and lowest live offer on the market. These are the firm commitments to buy and sell at that price; transactional data rather than list prices. It represents the actual trading activity of 600 of the world’s leading fine wine merchants. Because Liv-ex doesn’t itself trade, this data is truly independent and reliable.
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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. Independent data, direct from the market.
