Liv-ex, beyond the famous brands: how many Italian labels on the secondary market of fine wines

Neither the lockdown nor the crisis, which we will still have to deal with for a long time, was enough to curb interest and turnover around fine wines. Which, month after month, as revealed by Liv-ex, the reference index of the secondary market of investment wines, expands the number of labels traded, to the advantage of the production of the Belpaese, which now have a share second only to that of Bordeaux.
In the first half of 2020, the number of wines traded was 39% higher than in the same period of 2019, constantly above a thousand, to exceed, for the first time, the 1,000 references of July 2020, 20% more than in June.
An expansion of the market to the detriment of Bordeaux, which remains by far the reference territory, but which has seen its share of labels traded on the secondary market for fine wines increase from 46% in January to 34% in July. The share of labels from Bordeaux Italy, Burgundy, and Champagne reached 83% of the total in January, falling to 77% in July. In the same period, the wines from Italy, Spain and Rhone recorded the strongest growth, with the number of unique wines traded up 154%, 153% and 127% since January. Austria, Germany, Chile and the Loire also performed well but starting from a much less preponderant base.
Returning to Italy, whose wines accounted for slightly less than 20% of total transactions in July, two factors certainly weighed in the long run positively.
The first one is having overcome unscathed the axe of duties imposed by Trump (a few days ago for the third time, ed.), which instead hit French wines, confirming Italian wines as an excellent investment also overseas; the second is the arrival on the market, at the beginning of the year, of two excellent vintages from the two reference denominations of Italian wine in the world: Brunello di Montalcino 2015 and Barolo 2016.
And this is the interesting thing: in addition to the labels on the Liv-Ex 100, the platform’s reference index (including Bartolo Mascarello’s Barolo 2014, Brovia’s Barolo Villero 2013, Gaja’s Sperss 2013, Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2010, Masseto 2014 and 2015, Ornellaia 2013 and 2015, Sassicaia 2014, 2015 and 2016, Solaia 2015 and Tignanello 2016 by Marchesi Antinori), and those of Italy 100, the index that monitors the trend of the last ten years on the market of the most prestigious labels (those of Sassicaia, Solaia, Tignanello, Guado al Tasso, Gaja Sorì San Lorenzo, Gaja Barbaresco, Gaja Sperss, Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino, Masseto, Ornallaia), there are hundreds of labels capable of finding a market, and which deserve to be monitored by Liv-ex, from the Brunello labels to the great names of Barolo and Barbaresco, but also the symbols of Valpolicella, Chianti Classico and Bolgheri, territories with their own market niche and with investors, enthusiasts and collectors ready to bet on them.