What’s happening in the market?
Bordeaux has retaken the lead over the weekend, accounting for 50.4% of total trade since last Friday. Trade by value and volume were dominated by Château Lafite Rothschild 2019, with Château Latour 2011 featuring up in the rankings too.
Burgundy trailed far behind Bordeaux with 16.9% of trade, buoyed by trades of wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Italy had a strong weekend, Piedmont in particular. Giacomo Conterno, Barolo Monfortino Riserva 2008 was the fourth most-traded wine by value since last Friday.
Today’s deep-dive: Bordeaux 2020 – Where are they now?
Year-to-date, the 2020 vintage is the second most traded Bordeaux vintage in terms of value, volume and the number of trades, closely trailing 2019.
When the 2020s were released, they were heralded as the third in a ‘trilogy’ of high-quality vintages, alongside the 2018s and 2019s. In terms of release prices, the 2020 wines entered the market at a 27.9% premium on the 2019s, which were released lower than the 2018s during the Covid-19 pandemic, and at a 3.4% discount to the 2018s.
We looked at 40 wines from the 2020 vintage inside the Bordeaux 500 and reviewed how they have performed since their release. Out of them, 80% of them have a Market Price lower than their release price, some dropping as much as 22.5% (Château L’Evangile was released at £2,220 per case and has a current Market Price of £1,720) to a mere 1.4% in the case of Château Lafite Rothschild 2020, which dropped from £5,880 to a Market Price of £5,800 per case.
More strikingly, 20% of the wines considered have a current Market Price below their ex-négociant price. Cos d’Estournel 2020 was released at €150 per bottle (roughly equivalent to £1,548 per case) and has a current Market Price of £1,400 per case, a 9.6% decline.
Cos d’Estournel 2020 trades on Liv-ex
These fluctuations underscore that a substantial portion of the 2020 vintage was introduced to the market at prices exceeding market demand.
Looking at the trading dynamics around the time the 2020 vintage was released in bottle in early 2023 shows that trades prior to the 1st of February occurred on average 3.8% above their Market Price (with a significant amount of trades occurring 10% below it). From the 1st of February onwards, however, the average trade price dipped to 1.8% below the wines’ Market Prices.
It’s worth noting that some wines have outperformed others and bucked the trend – Pétrus and Château Lafleur have seen their Market Price increase by 89.7% and 70.9% respectively from their release price. See more below:
There are currently 5,479 LIVE bids and offers for Bordeaux 2020 wines 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: The Fine Wine Market in 2023
- Harper’s: Fine wine no longer ‘pillar of stability’ in tumultuous market
- Financial Times: China faces the risk of a debt-deflation loop
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.
