Fine wine market 2015: Stability back but Bordeaux loses share

Bordeaux lost more ground to Burgundy and Italy in 2015, but the overall fine wine market has shown greater stability, says a review of the past 12 months from the Liv-ex trading exchange.

Bordeaux‘s market share on Liv-ex has dropped to levels not seen since 2004, Liv-ex said this week in its review of the fine wine market 2015.

Liv-ex review highlights:

Bordeaux’s share of trades by value falls to below 75%
Burgundy, Italy and California gain
Overall fine wine market stabilises after four years of decline

Bordeaux still represented around three quarters of trades by value on Liv-ex in 2015, but its drop in share versus close to 90% a few years ago reflects ongoing consumer uncertainty over prices for recent Bordeaux vintages.

Fine wine buyers on Liv-ex have also continued to increase their interest in other regions in 2015, and notably wines from the most renowned estates in Burgundy, Italy and California.

See below how the Liv-ex 1000 index sub-indices performed over the past five years:

The Liv-ex 1000 sub-indices going back five years. Credit: Liv-ex.

The Liv-ex review offers an insight into the state of the fine wine market heading into 2016, although it is not an all-encompassing picture of the scene.

A key message in the 2015 review is a return to stability for the fine wine market, four years after a Bordeaux price bubble burst and led to consecutive annual declines in average prices.

Bordeaux Index, which tracks prices on its LiveTrade platform, has seen a 1.3% increase in fine wine prices year-to-date.

London-based Wine Asset Managers said last month that the market had been ‘holding reasonably firm’, but it warned against reading too much into the situation.

Liv-ex analysts said they were cautiously optimistic about 2016, particularly for Bordeaux.

‘Market participants are now beginning to perceive value in Bordeaux. There has been increased interest over the past few months in some of the vintages that suffered significant price falls, such as 2010,’ analysts said.

The Bordeaux 2015 en primeur campaign could be a significant moment in the year ahead, particularly given early enthusiasm around the vintage quality.