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Champagne and Italian trade climbs in October 

  • Champagne accounted for 20.3% of trade in the first week of October. 
  • Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne, Louis Roderer Cristal and Jacques Selosse were among the week’s top-traded labels. 
  • The October Market Report has been published alongside updates on the September results of the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 and Fine Wine 1000 indices. 

Regional trade this week  

Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne all accounted for trade shares of 20.0% this week, a big climb for Champagne but a sizeable reduction for Bordeaux after the last week of September. 

Despite the downward trend in Italian activity this year, trade for both Piedmont and Tuscany grew significantly on last week. Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Monfortino Riserva was the top-traded Piedmontese wine and Sassicaia and Masseto topped Tuscan trade. 

Spain, with 1.0% of total trade, was the most in-demand country away from the main regions. 

This week’s top traded  

Three Champagnes dominated trade this week, with Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2011 in the top spot. The Champagne has traded numerous times year-to-date and has risen 10.2% in value during that time. Its 2012 vintage of is due to be released soon. 

Meanwhile, appetite for Louis Roederer Cristal 2008 continued. It is the single most traded wine so far this year (followed by its 2014 vintage). 

The chart below shows all-time trades for the wine. Demand is increasingly focused on magnums and the premium of these larger formats over standard bottles is clear in the cluster of red dots that sits above those on the Market Price line. 

The two highest dots represent trades for methuselah. 

Louis Roederer Cristal 2008 trades on Liv-ex  

Weekly recap 

The beginning of a new month means this week was mostly dominated by analysis of the leading fine wine indices in September. 

Both of the leading fine wine indices, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 and Fine Wine 1000, made gains in September, of 1.9% and 2.1% respectively. 

Penfolds also released its latest vintage of Grange. The 2018 was released for £4,340 per case (12×75). It has a score of 99-points from The Wine Advocate. 

The October Market Report was also published. As well as further recapping the performance of the secondary market in September, it looks at the best-performing Bordeaux labels, Neal Martin’s recent review of Bordeaux vintages ending in ‘2’ and the market for rosé Champagne. 

Silver+ members can read the report in full

Liv-ex analysis is drawn from the world’s most comprehensive database of fine wine prices. The data reflects the real time activity of Liv-ex’s 600 merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £80m of bids and offers across 16,000 wines. Independent data, direct from the market.  

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