Wine and investments, record value traded on Liv-Ex, Italy at the top in the first 3 months of 2019

The passion for Fine Wines and their value as an alternative investment, knows no crisis. As a matter of fact, record after record is being broken. Liv-ex is the reference platform for the secondary market, as always, registers them and just a few days ago registered the top record ever of “live offers” on its exchanges: 30 million pounds Sterling.

The value has doubled, commented the London firm, in the last two years, which demonstrates how dynamic this particular wine market really is. The growing number of single wines traded on Liv-Ex, now over 6.800, which are coming from an ever-widening “wine planet”, confirm its dynamism. In addition to the traditional countries of France and Italy, the wine planet ranges from the USA to Chile, Australia. Germany, as well as England with its sparkling wines, and China. There has been an increase in the values exchanged for all the most important Regions, +26% (compared to 2015) in Bordeaux, +67% in Italy, +87% the US, +134% Champagne, and 90% Burgundy, which is, of course, the queen of wine prices.

The figure of the total values traded is furthermore, in stark contrast to the trend of the main indices of the platform that are all down since the beginning of 2019, with the exception of the Italy 100 and the Champagne 50. According to the analysts, this is due to the combined effect, primarily, of the uncertainties regarding Brexit, waiting for the release of the prices of the Chateaux wines after the En Primeur of Bordeaux, and production stocks still to be sold in the warehouses of wine merchants.
Liv-Ex 100, the reference index of the platform, which monitors the prices of the 100 most sought-after wines (for Italy, Masseto 2014, Sassicaia 2014 and 2015, Tignanello 2015 and Barolo Monfortino Reserve 2010 by Giacomo Conterno, ed.), has gone down 1% from the beginning of the year. Worse than that is Liv-Ex 1.000, down -2.5%, penalized by the fall of Burgundy 150 (which monitors the prices of the last 10 vintages of the top 15 names in Burgundy), down -5.6%, and Bordeaux Legends 50 (50 wines of the great vintages from 1982 onwards), down -3.4%. The index dedicated to the Rest of the World 50 (-2.4%), Rhone 100 (3.1%) and Bordeaux 500 (-0.93) are also down. The only positive exceptions, as mentioned above, are Champagne 50 (the most recent vintages of 12 major chateaux), up +1%, and above all Italy, which has registered the best performances since the beginning of the year. The Italy 100 index, which is currently formed by the most recent vintages of Sassicaia, Masseto, Solaia, Tignanello, Ornellaia, Barbaresco by Gaja, Barolo Monfortino Riserva and Barolo Cascina Francia by Giacomo Conterno, Guado al Tasso by Antinori and Redigaffi by Tua Rita, has grown 1.3% in the last 3 months. This is a positive sign for Italian wine, at least for the fine wines segment.