What’s happening in the market?
Bordeaux has led trade since last Friday with 43.0% of trade by value, buoyed by the 1982, 2003 and 2010 vintages of Château Lafite Rothschild trading.
Tuscany stood out in the Italian market, accounting for 10.1% of regional trade, with Sassicaia, Tenuta San Guido, Bolgheri 2016 and Tignanello, Toscana 2018 changing hands.
Champagne, on the other hand, has seen a slight decline in activity. The region holds 6.5% of regional trade by value since last Friday, with wines from Dom Pérignon and Louis Roederer trading.
Today’s deep-dive: The most sought-after wines from the Rhône
The Rhône 100 Index, the Liv-ex 1000’s weakest sub-index in 2023, has recorded a 17.8% year-to-date decline. Falling prices have been primarily driven by the poor performance of Château Rayas wines. In this update, we explore the most sought-after Rhône wines and identify where opportunities in the region might lie.
Which Rhône 100 wines were the most in-demand in Q3?
Famille Perrin, Châteauneuf-du-Pape Château de Beaucastel Rouge experienced steady demand in Q3, with five different vintages receiving the highest number of bids. The wine claimed the top spot as the most traded Rhône label during Q3, both by volume and number of trades, with seven different vintages traded.
The 2020 was the most sought-after in terms of number of bids, with a Market Price of £540 per case. The wine last traded at £564 per case, slightly above its Market Price and just above its release price of £560 per 12×75. With the best live bid also at this price point, there is likely to be further trading activity around this point.
Famille Perrin, Châteauneuf-du-Pape Château de Beaucastel Rouge 2020 trades on Liv-ex
Which Rhône 100 wines were the most searched-for on Liv-ex in Q3?
Interestingly, despite their poor price performance, all ten vintages of Château Rayas in the Rhône 100 outperformed other wines in the index in terms of search interest. As previously mentioned, the label has experienced an average decline of 30.2% across its vintages within the index year-to-date, about three times higher than the next worse performer, Château de Beaucastel Rouge, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, which recorded a 10.6% year-to-date decrease.
Which Rhône 100 wines were the most traded in Q3?
Despite its downturn, Château Rayas was the most traded label within the Rhône 100 by value and featured five times in the top ten. This is unsurprising given that its average Market Price is over four times the average of the rest of wines in the Rhône 100. In terms of trading volume, the labels at the top were more diverse, spanning multiple price ranges.
The 2019 and 2020 vintages stood out as the most popular in Q3; they were the most traded by value, volume and number of trades. This trend is common of a downward market, as seller seek to shift stock of younger vintages with larger volumes available.
How are Rhône 100 wines trading in relation to their Market Price?
In the lead-up to the index’s peak in September 2022, trades were occurring on average at a 1.26% premium to Market Price. After that, trade prices diverged from the wines’ Market Prices, ultimately settling 2.52% below on average by the end of Q3 2023.
During the third quarter of 2023, there was an increase in cases traded at Market Price, but there was also a surge in trades occurring at significant discounts, with 40% of cases trading 10% or more below Market Price in Q3 2023, compared to 29% in the same period last year.
Currently, October has seen trades taking place on average 1.65% below Market Price, with 50% of cases trading 10% or more below it.
There are currently 1,449 LIVE offers for wines from the Rhône on Liv-ex. Log in to the exchange to view them and trade. Additionally, you can use the new ‘Save to List Studio‘ function to add these wines to a custom list (e.g. a ‘wish list’ or ‘watch list’) which you can return to at any time.
In case you missed it:
Here’s what we’ve been reading:
- Liv-ex: Which are the most sought-after Burgundy wines?
- The Drinks Business: Climate change making grape growing in England harder
- Reuters: High inflation and slowdown signs: the BoE’s tough trade-off
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.
