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 Ł49.95 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, April 2008

Trading
The start of April was relatively quiet on the exchange, with many traders and merchants busy in Bordeaux tasting the latest vintage. They soon made up for lost time. April finished as the busiest month of the year so far, up 137% on last year. Wine funds remained active, as did UK merchants, buying 2005s ahead of the Parker scores. In contrast, European buyers dropped away despite the strong euro, presumably preserving funds for the 2007 campaign. The Liv-ex 100 also made further progress, increasing 1.5% to 258, setting a new record high in the process. The index was 24% up on last April, undoubtedly a strong performance but still the lowest year-on-year figure we have seen since February 2006. This is a trend that is likely to continue as the year progresses, with many of the big increases of last year falling off the back of the annual calculation. As in previous months, the index’s movement reflected strong demand for top names from good recent vintages (see www.liv-ex.com for details or find the Liv-ex 100 on Bloomberg: see index code LIVX100).

(more analysis in the full report)

Major Movers
As Parker’s final scores for the 2005s approached, the large increases that we saw in February and March for wines from this vintage were repeated, although the action was centred on a smaller group of wines. Troplong Mondot and Palmer 2005 saw the strongest price increase as speculators took positions ahead of the long-awaited Parker scores. Talbot and Leoville Barton also performed well. Among the fallers there is no great story to tell, except to say that we are again seeing some price softening for older vintages of Bordeaux as longterm holders take profit.

(analysed in detail in full report)

Critical Corner
With the scores from every major critic now released, it is clear that 2007 is a vintage to forget. The worst reds are, ‘thin, green [and] herbal’, according to Robert Parker, although the better examples are ’endearingly fruity, soft, silky-textured clarets’. The Sauternes and dry whites, however, are universally said to be superb. As Parker notes, the campaign is expected to be slow: ‘There is unquestionably little need to buy these wines as futures unless dramatic price reductions occur. I don’t expect that to happen.’ Below are the scores for selected reds from Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson and James Suckling (Wine Spectator).

(analysed in detail in full report)

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