Ever since we launched the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index back in the autumn of 2003, Liv-ex has been known as the source of the fine wine industry’s leading price benchmarks. We are now launching our most ambitious index yet: The Liv-ex Fine Wine Investables Index.
Designed to track the wines commonly found in an investment portfolio, it is our largest index to be calculated using the Liv-ex Mid Price and we have also backdated it to January 1988. As such, it provides a remarkable insight into the evolution of fine wine prices over more than 20 years.
If we look at the entire data series below, we can see that prices have risen substantially. The compound annual growth rate for the index since January 1988 is 12.6%, an exceptional rate of return over such a long period.
The index consists entirely of Bordeaux wines – arguably the only fine wines that can truly be considered investable – from 24 leading chateaux. To find our components wines we used a variety of criteria, most notably the score awarded by Robert Parker. It currently consists of 183 components, which will rise to 202 in July when the 2006 vintage is included (each new vintage is added in the summer it becomes physical). The full details on how the index is calculated – including the components, weightings and full series – can be found here on www.liv-ex.com.
In the next Liv-ex Monthly Market Report we will be releasing further research based on this index, including a comparison with various financial indices. To get access to this as early possible please sign up to one of our various subscription packages.
