What’s happening in the market?
Bordeaux has led trade so far this week with 32.7% of trade share, followed by Burgundy (17.1%).
Krug, Clos du Mesnil 2008 has been the top-traded wine by value so far this week – with Champagne taking 16.6% of total trade share.
Tuscany has taken 12.5% of trade this week, led by Masseto, Toscana 2010, Soldera Case Basse, 100% Sangiovese, Toscana 2019 and Biondi-Santi, Brunello di Montalcino, Riserva 2016.
Today’s deep dive: Tuscan stability in the Italy 100
The Italy 100 has been a beacon of stability amidst the broader market downturn. The index has fallen 5.6% in the last 12 months, outperforming the other sub-indices of the Liv-ex 1000, as well as its parent index ( -14.0%).
However, the index saw the steepest decline of Liv-ex’s key regional indices in May, falling 1.5% – its second biggest fall since January 2023.
Of the 100 components in the Italy 100 index, 27 saw their prices rise, 14 remained flat and 59 fell.
* prices shown are Liv-ex Mid Prices; 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 620+ of the world’s leading fine wine merchants. Because Liv-ex doesn’t itself trade, this data is truly independent and reliable.
Giacomo Conterno, Barolo, Montortino Riserva tells a story of two halves. On the one hand, the 2015 vintage was the top-traded component of the Italy 100 index in May, followed by the 2008, with the vintage being one of the top-performing wines last month (+7.6%).
On the other, three older vintages from this label feature amongst the worst performing components – 2006 (-11.2%), 2005 (-7.7%) and 2001 (7.1%).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, five Super Tuscans were among the top-performers of the Italy 100 index in May.
The chart above compares the Super Tuscans components of the Italy 100 with the other Italian wines comprising the index.
Leading up to the peak of the market in October 2022, the Super Tuscans boasted soaring price rises. From October 2020 to October 2022, the Super Tuscans rose 39.2%. By comparison, the remaining index components rose 25.3%.
The Super Tuscan wines declined more sharply than their counterparts during the initial market downturn – those regions who flew the highest had the furthest to fall. However, perhaps what is more interesting is the view over the last year.
Since the start of the year, the rest of the Italian components have collectively dropped 2.0%. By comparison, the Super Tuscan index has risen 0.5%, meaning that if it existed, it would be the best performing Liv-ex index year-to-date – by a considerable way.
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