Every Friday, we take a look at activity on the fine wine market in our weekly ‘Talking Trade’ post. Highlights from the past week include:
- Champagne outperformed Burgundy this week in terms of regional trade by value.
- Louis Roederer Cristal 2015 led the top-traded wines by value and volume this week, continuing Champagne’s three-week streak.
- Liv-ex published analysis of the most sought-after wines in the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 and introduced List Studio – the newest tool that allows you to store, manage and instantly add relevant data to all your wine lists, all in one place.
What’s happening in the secondary market?
This week, Champagne made a comeback, surpassing Burgundy to claim the second spot in regional trade, with Bordeaux maintaining its lead. Champagne’s trade share by value almost doubled from 9.6% last week to 18.4% this week, exceeding its September share of 15.8%. Wines from Louis Roederer, Dom Pérignon and Taittinger drove activity in the region.
Tuscany and the USA also had a strong week. Tuscany increased its trade share from 5.8% to 8.2% with Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia, Bolgheri 2020 among the top-traded wines by volume. The USA saw increased activity with Screaming Eagle 2019 changing hands.
On the other hand, all other regions experienced declines in their trade shares. Despite Champagne’s success, overall trade in France saw a slight dip this week with the Rhône dropping to 1.9% from 3.7%, Burgundy decreasing from 16.7% to 16.2% and Bordeaux slipping from 45.5% to 39.7% of total trade. While Bordeaux’s trade share declined, two of its wines featured in the top five most traded wines by value: Pétrus 2018 and Château Mouton Rothschild 2009.
What were this week’s top-traded wines?
This week’s top-traded wines showcased a blend of regions and values. Bordeaux, Champagne, and California dominated the list in terms of value, while a more diverse selection emerged in terms of trade by volume, including wines from Italy and Spain. Lower-priced Non Vintage Champagnes featured among the top-traded wines by volume, with Charles Heidsieck, Brut Réserve, NV and Pol Roger, Réserve Brut NV seeing activity this week in anticipation of Christmas.
The top-traded wine this week, both in terms of value and volume, was Louis Roederer’s Cristal 2015. The wine was released in April at £2,600 per case, and has since seen its Market Price drop to £2,090, with the most recent trade closing at £1,962 per case. The wine has scores of 96 points from Antonio Galloni and 98 points from Lisa Perrotti-Brown.
Louis Roederer Cristal 2015 trades on Liv-ex
In a recent Market Update available to members on Bronze packages and above, it was revealed that Champagnes traded at an average discount of 4.52% below their Market Price in Q3 2023. This time last year, Champagne wines were trading only 1.07% their Market Price on average, which means buyers are able to secure wines from the region at more favourable prices now.
Weekly insights recap
This week, Liv-ex published a free piece on the most popular wines in the Liv-ex 1000. In addition, Liv-ex members on Bronze packages and above also have exclusive access to Market Updates providing insights into the most sought-after Bordeaux wines and Champagnes.
Liv-ex also released List Studio, a new tool which allows you to store, manage and instantly add relevant data to all your wine lists – all in one place.
Not yet a member of Liv-ex? Request a demo to see the exchange and a member of our team will be in touch with you shortly.
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 620+ merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £100m of bids and offers across 20,000 wines.
