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market report
Liv-ex is an electronic exchange for fine wine used by professional merchants and collectors. Market Report is part of a package of services offered to subscribers of Liv-ex, with subscriptions starting at £49.95 per year. Below is just a brief extract from the latest Market Report. For the full report and to access Liv-Ex's services, sign-up with them at www.liv-ex.com
Liv-Ex Market Report
by Liv-ex.com, March 2009
Trading
After a promising start to 2009, March saw the fine wine trade step back
and take a breath. With fears over the market’s appetite for the soon to
be released Bordeaux 2008s overshadowing action in back vintages, trade
was slow throughout the month. Overall, exchange turnover was down
5% on last year, although the first quarter as a whole was up 17%. All
sectors of the market were less active, including traders from outside the
UK despite the continuing weakness of sterling.
As a result, the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index gave back much of last month’s
gain, arriving at 207.7 by month end; a decrease of 1.2% on February. This
brought the year to date gain to 1.3%, with the year on year fall now
18.2%. (See www.liv-ex.com for details or find the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine
Index on Bloomberg: see index code LIVX100.)
March saw Bordeaux’s share of trade drop below 80% for first time since
early 2006, with Burgundy, Champagne and the New World picking up
the slack. As was the case last month, 2006 and 2005 led the Bordeaux
pack, accounting for 12% and 15% of trade respectively. Pre-1990 wines
also had a strong month, with good availability of First Growths from
1982 and 1986 pushing the sector’s share up to 13% of Bordeaux trade.
Burgundy’s 9% share was propelled by strong parcels of Leflaive, DRC and
Potel coming to market. Elsewhere, the Champagne market was boosted
by heavy trading of the famous names from the 1996 vintage.
(more analysis in the full report)
Major Movers
It was top-scoring (and reasonably priced) Bordeaux that was the major
winner in March, with both Pichons appearing on the top movers list.
Krug also had an extremely good month, with the recent downward price
trajectory we have seen for the Champagne more than reversed.
The bottom half of the table is dominated by Burgundy, which is arguably
due to good general availability rather than any weakness in demand.
Similarly, the appearance of two wines from the Rhone can be attributed
to an easing of the recent upwards trend in prices, particularly for the very
best mature wines from the region.
Critical Corner
Final Thought
(analysed in detail in full report)
As usual, James Suckling was the first critic to pronounce on Bordeaux
2008, with the Wine Spectator critic finding much to like. He states that
the “vintage is very good for the top names of Bordeaux. From petite
chateaux to the premiers crus, the reds show lovely aromas, fruity palates
and silky tannins”. He goes on to describe the wines as “very good to
outstanding quality” and declares them “better than 2007, 2004 and 2002,
and either at or slightly below the quality level of 2001 or 2006.”
He describes the whites less enthusiastically, preferring the 2006 and 2007
vintages for their “better ripeness”. The sweet wines are seen as good,
but “not in the same league as last year”.
(more analysis in full report)
Recent en primeur campaigns have been notable for their sedate pace,
with the First Growths (whose prices generally define a campaign) not
releasing until well into June. This year has been different: the moment
the Easter egg wrappers were cleared away we had our first price. Latour
was first to show its hand at €130 a bottle, ex-Bordeaux, which translates
as around £1,600 a case in London. At the time of writing the other Firsts
are yet to release, but it would seem likely that they will be priced at a
similar level.
To put this in perspective, we compared the current market prices and
release prices for the First Growths in the last ten vintages. First, we
calculated the current price of a basket of one 12x75cl case (owc, IB) of
each of the first growths. We then did the same for the ex-Bordeaux
release price and converted it into an index, with 100 representing the
2008 price. The results can be seen below.
(more analysis in full report)
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