Trade by both value and volume dipped this week. The market turned its focus to Bordeaux and Burgundy which collectively accounted for nearly 95% of trade by value. Activity for all other regions was reduced. The Fine Wine 50 index edged higher – up 0.6%. It is currently less than 1% below its 5-year high in March 2012.
Blue chip traders
The Bordeaux First Growths took an increased 31.4% of trade by value this week. While Lafite was the most traded of the Premier Cru overall, two Mouton Rothschild vintages feature in the ‘top by value’ table.
Latour release – “Mixed reaction”
Absent from the table was Latour 2005. On Tuesday, 3,000 cases of the wine were released from the Chateau at £7,800, a 14.7% premium to Market Price. Previously, ex-Chateau releases from Bordeaux have triggered activity for lower-priced cases in the secondary market. This week, Liv-ex saw Latour 2005 trade at £7,000 per 12×75. This follows a handful of trades the previous week at £6,700.
The Drinks Business reported a “mixed reaction” to the Latour release, suggesting that sales were “apparently very strong in places and merely reasonable in others.”
Bordeaux 2014 – coming soon
Neal Martin’s report on Bordeaux 2014 in bottle is expected at the end of this month. This week, a handful of wines from the vintage traded including Pavillon Rouge, which was the most active by volume, and Montrose which has seen a flurry of trades recently.
Also in the news
Also in the headlines this week was Laurent Ponsot’s decision to leave the family’s estate in Burgundy to establish his own winery in the region. Liv-ex published a short article looking back at the performances of Ponsot Clos Roche Vv vintages over the past year. The Liv-ex Blog also published an update on the Super Tuscan indices, highlighting a recent drop for Tignanello.
