- Côte Rôtie and Hermitage’s share of the Rhône’s trade grew to over 20% each in 2021.
- The ‘La La’ wines from Guigal were among the top traded wines by value.
- Châteauneuf-du-Pape retained the largest share of trade by value and the top wines traded by volume.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape continued to lead Rhône’s trade last year but the northern appellations of Côte Rôtie and Hermitage saw an upward tick in activity.
In 2020, Châteauneuf-du-Pape accounted for 55.9% of Rhône trade, Côte Rôtie 15.9% and Hermitage 11.3%.
But by the end of 2021, Châteauneuf trade was down to 43.5%, Côte Rôtie was back up to 26.9% and Hermitage to 20.4%. In terms of total trade share, it was the best year for Côte Rôtie since 2019, when it accounted for 32.8% and since 2018 for Hermitage, when it was 23.1%.
More generally, the Rhône took a larger share of secondary market trade in 2021 than it did in 2020 (4.5% vs 3.4%). The Rhone 100 sub-index also rose 14.4% between 31st December 2020 and 31st December 2021.
As the chart above shows, this was a better performance than both the Bordeaux 500 (10.5%) and Italy 100 (13.9%) over the same period.
Guigal’s ‘La La’ wines the top traded wines by value
Four of the top five top traded Rhône wines (by value) were from Côte Rôtie, and all from E. Guigal. These covered La Mouline, La Turque and La Landonne as well as ‘Ex Voto’ Rouge.
The 2017 La Turque was the top traded Northern Rhône wine by value last year. The top five wines traded by volume, on the other hand, were all from Châteauneuf, led by Domaine de la Janasse, Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes 2019.
Declining trade for Cornas and Condrieu
Not all Northern Rhône appellations had quite such a positive year. Both Condrieu and Cornas’ share of trade declined. saw their trade share decline.
Cornas represented 5.0% of Rhône trade in 2020 compared to 3.8% last year, while Condrieu also fell from 8.2% to 2.1%.
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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 560+ merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £100m of bids and offers across 16,000 wines. Independent data, direct from the market.
