Italian wine poised for big growth on Liv-Ex

By Mathew Lyons

Published: 26 September, 2019

The price of Italian wine on the secondary market still lags behind its critical reputation, according to a new report from fine-wine trading platform Liv-Ex. But that could be changing.

Italy’s market share on Liv-Ex has doubled over the last five years, and the number of Italian wines being traded has quadrupled, already breaking the 600 barrier this year.

Although Italy has underperformed the market as a whole in price terms over that period, the platform’s Italy index has risen 28.3% in the last three years, putting it in third place after Burgundy and Champagne.

It has also been the best-performing index of 2019 and is the only sub-index to post consistent monthly gains so far this year.

Italy also now accounts for 8.5% of all trade by value, up from under 2% ten years ago. It is the third most traded group by value after Bordeaux and Burgundy.

Tuscany dominates Italian trades, with more than two-thirds coming from the region. The bulk of the other trades concern wines from Piedmont.

Among Super-Tuscan wines, Tignanello is the top performer, up 52% since June 2014. Sassicaia and Solaia have both posted rises of 46%.

However, Tuscan wines have only risen 0.2% in value overall since December 2017. Wines from from Piedmont have grown 12% over the same period.

Trades in Piedmontese wines have risen an astonishing 3,300% over the past ten years, with growth so far in 2019 running at 40%.

The rise of Italian wine on Liv-Ex is evident in the bienniel Liv-ex Classification released earlier this year which featured 39 Italian wines, 30 of them new to the listing.

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