Fine wines, heading for a 2024 double-digit loss for all Liv-Ex indexes

A black November, that of 2024, tarring hopes of a turnaround among investors in fine wines, after the faint positive signs recorded in October. With further declines around -2%, month-on-month, for all leading indicators, the Liv-Ex indices, the benchmark for monitoring the secondary market for fine wines, have all been in double-digit losses, or slightly less, since the beginning of the year.
The Liv-Ex 100, flagship of the platform (which includes, for Italy, Bartolo Mascarello’s Barolo 2019, Bruno Giacosa’s Barolo Falletto Vigna le Rocche Riserva 2017, Gaja’s Barbaresco 2019, Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Monfortino Riserva 2014 and 2015, Biondi-Santi’s Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2016, Frescobaldi’s Masseto 2019 and 2020 and Ornellaia 2020, Tenuta San Guido’s Sassicaia 2018, 2019 and 2020, Antinori’s Solaia 2019 and Tignanello 2019 and 2020, and Tua Rita’s Redigaffi 2020, ed.), makes -9.2% since the beginning of the year. Even worse is the Liv-Ex 1000, the broadest, which marks -11.1%, dragged down by -14.4% in the Burgundy 150 and -11.3% in the Bordeaux 500, by far the worst-performing indices, while decreases between -9.1% and -9.9% are recorded by the various Champagne 50, Rhone 100, Fine Wine Investables, and so on. And from January to November 2024, the California 50, and the Rest of The World are also down sharply, despite the positive sign in the last month.
Less bad, but definitely bad, is also the Italy 100, consisting of Bartolo Mascarello’s Barolo, with all vintages from 2010 to 2019, Bruno Giacosa’s Barolo Falletto Le Rocche del Falletto Riserva (2000, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017), from Flaccianello della Pieve di Fontodi (vintages 2011 to 2020), Gaja’s Barbaresco (2010 to 2019), Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Monfortino Riserva (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015), and again from all vintages from 2011 to 2020 of Masseto, Ornellaia, Sassicaia, Solaia and Tignanello, now at -6% since the beginning of the year.
A very difficult picture, then, even for the segment of great wines and collectibles, after a trend that, in the past few years, seemed to promise easy gains to those who invested in great labels, in a segment of high-end products that, long thought to be disconnected from the general dynamics of consumption, turns out, instead, to be by no means immune to the economic difficulties and changes that the world, as a whole, is facing in recent years.