Recent trading activity
The momentum for Californian wines continued into the weekend, with Screaming Eagle The Flight 2019, Promontory 2014 and Opus One 2012 being just some of the labels that saw trade.
Demand for Champagne was maintained, with non-vintages leading trade by volume. Meanwhile, Krug Clos d’Ambonnay 1998 set a new trading record at £30,620 per 12×75.
Bordeaux too enjoyed an uptick in activity, mostly driven by its 2019 vintage. Château Beychevelle 2019, Le Pin 2015 and Château Mouton Rothschild 2003 were among its most traded wines by value.
Walter Speller releases Barolo 2019 scores
Barolo has enjoyed increased demand in the secondary market following recent critic reports on the 2019 releases. Regional trade by value has risen 70% since the publication of Antonio Galloni’s scores last week.
Walter Speller (JancisRobinson.com) is the latest critic to release his tasting notes. In his report, he called 2019 ‘a vintage that excels in elegance’, ‘a classic in the making’.
Speller likened it to 2013, ‘an outstanding vintage from a rather troubled growing season’. He said that both have produced wines ‘to lay down’, observing that ‘tannins are certainly eye-catching in 2019 because they are plentiful’.
However, for Francesco Versio, oenologist at Figli Luigi Oddero, the two were not comparable. He argued that ‘2019 is talked up, especially after the 2018’. Versio explained that ‘in 2019 the old vines and the top vineyards had a clear advantage’ which is the case in classic years.
For him, the tannins did not have ‘the same quality as those of the outstanding, already mythical, 2016’ and some 2018s which were ‘more balanced’. In the secondary market, 2016 (36.4%) and 2018 (29.6%) have led trade by value for Barolo in the first weeks of 2023.
Speller said that he did not ‘wholy share Versio’s fierce judgement’ but that ‘the full picture of the 2019 vintage will emerge only after [his] comprehensive tasting scheduled for May next year’.
Speller’s top-scoring wines can be seen in the table above, while his comprehensive tasting notes can be found here.
There are currently over 1,200 LIVE Barolo opportunities on your 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.
