The recent Knight Frank Wealth Report included a section on ‘luxury collectable assets’ – such
as classic cars, fine art and fine wine. It was revealed that although fine
wine was the third most popular luxury investment in 2012, it had the worst yearly performance out of the nine assets featured.
Quoting Andrew della Casa from the Wine Investment Fund, the
report cited Lafite as the brand that ‘drove prices up, creating a bubble’
which led to the market ‘over-correct[ing]’. But the Liv-ex indices are now on
the rise – as we saw yesterday, the Liv-ex 50 has risen
10.8% since its low point in November 2012, while the Liv-ex 100 has risen
6% year to date.
Although it would seem that the market started to turn in
mid-November, the chart above shows that some Lafite vintages had begun rise in
price before then. Asian buyers began to turn back to Lafite in late August, but
only the “off”-vintages found themselves in demand – and prices increased.
It has taken longer for the more acclaimed vintages to find
buyers, but as the chart below shows, both “off” and “on” vintages are now
moving upwards in tandem, suggesting that Lafite is attracting broad market
interest again.
