Recent trading activity
Despite Champagne’s strong start to the week, trade for the major French regions had fallen back into the regular pattern of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne by mid-week.
On Wednesday trade for those region’s centred around Château Mouton Rothschild 2000 and Château Lafite Rothschild 2004, Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes 2015 and Dom Pérignon 2012.
Meanwhile, Australian trade hit 1.3% this week, almost the same as the Rhône and California’s, driven by demand for Penfolds Grange 2017, 2015 and 2001.
Tuscany outperforms Piedmont in 2022
The wines of Piedmont and Tuscany have always dominated Italy’s secondary market trade. Between the two, Tuscany has historically commanded the larger share. However, Piedmont narrowed the gap between 2019-2021, hitting a high of 41.9% of Italian trade in 2021.
This year (so far), that share has declined to 38.6%. Buyers have fallen back on established Tuscan brands with higher liquidity and relative value, such as Sassicaia, Tignanello and Masseto; which together have accounted for 22.1% of all Italian trade this year.
The Super Tuscan components of the Italy 100 index have also out-performed the Piedmontese contingent. Year-to-date, the Tuscan wines have risen 12.2% and the Piedmont wines 5.3%. Over a longer, three-year period Tuscan prices have risen 53.9% in value to 16.9% for Piedmont.
To understand which wines are pushing their respective indices, the chart above shows the performance of the individual wines that make up the Italy 100 components year-to-date.
With the exception of Masseto, all of the Tuscan wines have out-performed the index itself, rising double figures. By comparison, the Piedmont wines have lagged, with all but one falling below the Italy 100 index.
The notable exception is Gaja’s Barbaresco, which is the best-performing wine in the Italy 100 so far this year, up 16.6%. The next best-performer is the Super Tuscan Tignanello, up 16.5%.
Interestingly, both these wines are the least expensive Italian wines on average, as shown in the table below. However, it’s worth noting that the two most expensive Tuscan wines in the index (Solder Case Basse and Masseto) have also been rising in value.
Opportunities to buy Italian wines
There are currently 4,000 LIVE opportunities for Italian wines on the exchange.
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 600 merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £80m of bids and offers across 16,000 wines.
