By Tuesday the 25th of August, the value of Italian wine trade in 2020 surpassed the whole of 2019. In the closing remarks of the Liv-ex 2019 Q4 report on the region, we said, “as collectors continue to diversify portfolios beyond the traditional French regions, Italy stands to win”, but even we didn’t forecast the power of that momentum. Nevertheless, the fundamentals have always been there for Italy and now as they receive ever-increasing critical attention and find greater activity (Live bids & offers), the region looks poised to continue on its successful path.
Additionally, this week we observed two of the highest ever trade days (transactions). On back-to-back days, Wednesday and Thursday, the amount of trades rose above all but one prior day. When compared to the equivalent two days last year (wed/thurs before the bank holiday weekend) transactions are up nearly 100%.
Italy (22.4%) had its best week of the month, however, this came at the expense of Bordeaux (35.0%) and Burgundy (12.5%) who both drifted from the week prior.
Champagne (14.5%) and the Rhone (4.6%) increased while the USA (4.7%) and Others (6.3%) fell slightly.
Louis Roederer, Cristal 2012 was the most traded wine by value this week. Released earlier this year at £1,630 per 12×75 it has proven one of the market’s favourites of 2020, trailing just Dom Perignon 2008 as the best-selling Champagne by both value and volume.
Two vintages of Ornellaia made the list, 2015 and 2017, the former trading slightly above the newest release. The two vintages sandwich the highest scored, 2016, which at just a 16-18% premium looks to offer relative value. Seen in the chart below, older vintages often carry a significant premium and of wines from the past decade, 2012, looks to be the best bang for your buck out wines scored 94 points or below.
Two wines from Bordeaux wrapped up the top five. Trade from the Bordeaux 2019 EP campaign is still going strong – releases were priced at a significant discount to 2018 in many places. Beychevelle, Pape Clement, and Leoville Barton all moved hands this week.
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We recently highlighted the relative performance of the Bordeaux 500 sub-indices, observing none of the Bordeaux 500 sub-indices were positive over a one-year period. However, from early 2020 there was a semblance of recovery – four out of six sub-indices turned positive year-to-date, seen below. Additionally, we showed the top performing wine brands but how does this look when broken down further?
