Fine wine market enters 'calmer waters' in Q1

Published: 16 April, 2012

The first quarter of 2012 has seen the fine wine market enter "calmer waters", according to Liv-ex's Fine Wine 100 Index, which is broadly flat.

Looking back at the first three months, first growths and other top labels moved up and down, while market breadth continued to widen and exchange turnover grew 16% on February.

Renewed interest in Bordeaux's 2009 vintage, thanks to the release of Parker's in-bottle scores, boosted its share of turnover by 4% to 90%; Burgundy generated 4%; Rhone accounted for 1.3% and Italy 1.4% of trade. La Las and Sassicaia pushed their respective regions forward.

The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 was mainly neutral - it hit 294 on March 31 ? up 2.5% YTD but down 18.2% year on year. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50, which tracks the value of the 10 most recent vintages of the first growths, also saw limited movement. The benchmark ended the month at 345, up 3.1% year to date.

Bordeaux 2009 accounted for more than a third of trade by value, with Haut Brion, Latour and Ducru Beaucaillou taking 9% of 2009 trade each. There was sustained demand for 2008, with Mouton finding support at £4,350-£4,400.

With the release of the Parker scores Smith Haut Lafitte became the cheapest 100-point Bordeaux wine, and prices rose rapidly. Other 100-pointers, such as Leoville Poyferre and Pontet Canet, followed a similar trajectory while Pichon Baron and Duhart Milon were both upgraded.

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