On Liv-ex more and more wines: in March 2021 there were 1,250 labels traded

The fine wines market is in continuous expansion, as it is always told by Liv-ex, not only in the growth of its indexes, and therefore of the values of the bottles exchanged on the secondary market, but also in the global dimensions of the number of labels and bottles exchanged, and therefore in the overall business volume. In this sense, the contraction of the share of Bordeaux labels, halved in ten years, is not such a dramatic fact. If anything, it is the consequence of the growing number of brands and vintages from other territories - Burgundy, Champagne, Rhone, Italy and the United States - that have entered the market in this decade. In 2020, the number of brands traded on Liv-ex grew by 70%, from 996 in 2019 to 1,420. The total number of wines, including different vintages of the same wine brands, was 8,735, up 72% from 6,367 in 2019.
This increase continued in 2021, with March reaching the peak of Liv-ex's 21-year history, with 1,250 different brands traded in a single month, 130 of which were new arrivals on the secondary market. The most evident example of how much the market has changed rapidly in these years is the 87% growth, in five years, of the Burgundy 150. But not less important is the evolution of the Champagne 50, which, in the same period, has scored a +58%, thanks to important and available stocks of brands that do not need any presentation. And, then, of course, there is Italy 100, increased by 45%, thanks to the driving force of great wines from Piedmont and Tuscany. Wines from California also did well, whose share increased from 2% to 7% of total trade.
As it happened in practically every sector of the economy, technological innovations have also crossed the wine industry, transforming the behavior of both wine companies and buyers. 2020, therefore, saw the launch of new startups, apps dedicated to digital wine, growth of online sales and virtual tastings, normalizing, if it can be said so, online trading. Novelties brought significant impacts on purchasing models, because the buyer is more and more independent, and tends to enlarge his portfolio of labels. As a consequence, wines traded on Liv-ex in 2020 did not come only from the most traditional wine regions, such as Bordeaux and Burgundy, but also from China, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Chile and Argentina. Prices per bottle also ranged over a huge range, from £4 to £21,000. As the world of wine becomes more and more digital, it is likely this trend will continue in the next years.
Impacting the wine market, and therefore the fine wine market, since 2019 have been the duties, at 25%, affecting Bordeaux and Burgundy wines, but not Champagne and Italian labels, in the United States. The suspension, albeit temporary, of the tariffs, immediately revived sales of great French wines in the U.S. in the first three months of 2021. All good signs to foresee a further growth of the fine wine market, destined to meet the recovery of investments and of the economy in general.