Fine wine merchants in confident mood - Liv-ex survey

Highlights

The Liv-ex 100 fine wine price tracker is this year set to reach highs not seen since 2011, according to many merchants surveyed by the trading platform.

Liv-ex questioned its 440 merchant members and found that, on average, respondents expect the Liv-ex 100 index to close at 320.6 in 2017. It closed at 297.3 in 2016.

If confirmed, that would see one of Liv-ex’s most important fine wine market indicators hit its highest level for six years.

Liv-ex 100 consists of 100 of the world’s most sought-after wines.

While Liv-ex 100 wines are subject to change and Liv-ex trades are only part of a much broader fine wine market scene, the survey adds to evidence of a general market recovery.

This has been consistently reported in Decanter magazine’s Market Watch pages in recent months.

Wine merchant BI has also seen its Livetrade index hit its highest level for six years, albeit things have flattened out so far this year.

The BI Livetrade Index. Credit: BI.

James Miles, Liv-ex MD and co-founder, said merchants’ optimism ‘follows an impressive year for fine wine, which outperformed other markets including Gold, Copper and stocks in 2016, rising 25%’.

It is also said in the industry that merchants tend to lean towards optimistic assessments, although Liv-ex pointed out that members under-estimated the market in 2016.

In the UK, the immediate Brexit aftermath and associated sterling currency weakness have seen dollar buyers in the US and Hong Kong looking to take advantage of deals at British merchants.

Bordeaux still occupies the majority of the global fine wine market and the Bordeaux 2016 en primeur campaign is likely to be an important bellwether of overall market health.

‘A fairly priced en primeur campaign has the potential to improve sentiment further,’ said Miles.

Decanter.com will be covering Bordeaux en primeur in significant detail in the coming weeks. Contributing editor Jane Anson will be Decanter’s sole taster this year.