How to value fine wine

In 2018, two bottles of 1945 Romanée Conti sold at auction for US$558,000 and $496,000 respectively, smashing all previous records as well as the expected sale prices. Headline-grabbing events like this push fine wine collecting into the spotlight, and often prompt questions about how to accurately put a price – particularly such a high one – on a bottle of wine.

The reality is that the vast majority of fine wine – collectable bottles that are built to age – is far easier to value than ‘unicorn’ bottles like these.

Wine valuation in the 21st century 

Surging prices for fine and rare wines drove the auction house Sotheby’s to report its highest year of sales in 2021, while the annual Hospices de Beaune auction broke records with the average price per barrel was £35,975. Headline-grabbing news like this pushes fine wine collecting into the spotlight, and often prompts questions about how to accurately price wine – particularly when it comes to expensive bottles.  

The reality is that the vast majority of fine wine – collectable bottles that are built to age – is easy to value. This report outlines the factors influencing the price of fine wine, and how wine professionals can arrive at accurate valuations efficiently. 

Why fine wine can be valued accurately 

Fine wine is unique among alternative asset classes like art and classic cars. Every piece of art, for example, is different. It can take decades for the same piece to reappear on the market, making valuation challenging despite the emergence of art indices. 

Wine is different. Each year, producers make many bottles of the same wine. Some, like many top Bordeaux, are made in significant quantities. Even the smallest producers will make several hundred cases of the same wine each year. As a result, the same products are often available simultaneously from retailers around the world and change hands frequently.  

This makes it much easier to arrive at accurate valuations for fine wine than art. The chart below shows trading activity for Château Lafite Rothschild 2006 over five years. The grey markers represent trades of wine on Liv-ex, the global marketplace for the wine trade. The red line is its Market Price, which is widely used for valuations. As you can see, it tracks transaction prices very closely. 

While fine wine prices are less volatile than those of most traditional assets, frequent changes mean it is important to follow the market and have a reliable source of pricing information at any given time. For instance, the price of Lafite Rothschild 2006 changed on average 8 times per day in 2021.

What influences the price of wine?

There is a long list of factors that influence the prices of fine wines: current market strength, the region, the popularity of the producer, critic scores, the general appeal of the vintage, scarcity, age and more.

There are also reasons why two bottles of the same wine might hold different values. Most commonly, these relate to the condition of the wine. Is the bottle in perfect condition, and is it in its original wooden case? Value can also be affected by tax status. Have local taxes been paid, or is the wine stored in bond?

The Lafite Rothschild 2006 chart also shows auction prices in green. As you can see, they can vary enormously. We have no way of knowing why, on the same day, one case of Lafite 2006 sold for £5,079 and another for £6,877, but it is likely due to differences in their conditions.

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The importance of standardised price data

When valuing fine wine, it is important to make sure that you are comparing like for like. If your case has been stored in perfect condition since purchase, you want to make sure that your valuation is based on similarly perfect cases.

As the Lafite Rothschild 2006 chart shows, you could be seriously undervaluing your wine if you rely on information from a previous sale where, for example, the wine labels were damaged. This is the main challenge of relying on auction data, which is not standardised.

Fortunately, the SIB contract (Standard-In-Bond) is commonly used today. It is for wines that are in perfect condition, in original packaging, and are stored in bond. This accounts for the vast majority of fine wine that is actively traded on the secondary market. It means that market participants can be confident with these valuations. This is why the grey markers on our chart trend together, whereas the auction data fluctuates.

The value of Liv-ex’s Market Price data 

The Liv-ex Market Price is the best-listed price for a wine in the secondary market. The independent data behind it comes directly from the market and is only available on Liv-ex. Liv-ex obtains list prices from large group of trusted international merchants amongst its 620+ members. Preference is given to prices from stockholders – a guarantee that the wine is available – over brokers, to cases over single bottles, and to recent prices over older prices.  

The algorithm behind the Liv-ex Market Price runs every day, evaluating a pool of over 125 million data points to determine the most accurate prices for over 320,000 wines. The price is standardised to 12x75cl.

Valuations using the Liv-ex Market Price 

The Market Price is used by leading merchants around the world to provide independent valuations for clients. Many also use it to help inform purchase decisions and to decide on the correct prices for sales. It is the price that a buyer can expect to pay for a wine on the secondary market.  

Since the Liv-ex Market Price is based on listed prices, it tells you the cost of replacement for a case. If you are a private collector, you need to account for the commission when selling wine to a merchant. You might expect to receive offers 10-15% below Market Price for your wine, depending on its condition. Premiums may be offered for older wines with exceptional provenance.

Accounting for condition issues or large formats

The Market Price can be used to accurately value wines in good condition. Where this is not the case, experienced fine wine traders can advise on adjusted valuations using their professional expertise.

The same is true of large format bottles, such as magnums or jeroboams. These may command premiums on regular bottle sizes, particularly for champagnes.

How to carry out a valuation

It wasn’t long ago that valuing a portfolio of wines was a lengthy and manual process. Before the Internet, phoning other merchants or looking through printed brochures was the default option for discovering price information for fine wine. Prices from various sources would be noted down, and eventually the merchant could make a judgement on the value of the wine. It was extremely time-consuming and the risk of error was considerable.The arrival of the Internet made information sharing far more efficient. Visiting several websites and searching for prices was quick and easy compared to sifting through piles of paper. Yet a similar process continued; search for a price, note it down, search again, compare it, make a judgement. Although digitalised, the process has remained very manual.Today, wine professionals and private collectors have several options when it comes to valuing portfolios accurately, efficiently, and even automatically.

Methods for professionals

Free online searching

A free way to find wine prices is with sites like Wine Searcher or Google. Anyone can open up a web browser, search for a wine, and note down the advertised price. If you rarely need to value fine wines, aren’t working with a long list, and don’t wish to pay for a premium service, this may be your best option.

As a general rule, this method isn’t recommended for non-professionals. Experience is required to make good judgements about which price points can be trusted, particularly for old and rare wines. For example, many advertised prices may come from broking companies who do not have the stock available. It can be impossible to find wine at the advertised price, making that valuation inaccurate.

Detailed online searching

More sophisticated online resources are available to members of the wine trade that offer a greater depth of data and provide more accurate valuations. Liv-ex is such a resource. The online platform shows members’ transaction prices (bids, offers, last trade), and the Market Price. This is a good option when you only need to check the prices of a small handful of wines.

Bid Price and Offer Price – The price at which Liv-ex trading members are currently bidding to buy or offering to sell a wine on the market.

Last Trade Price –The transactional price at which each wine was last bought and sold on the global marketplace.

The Liv-ex Mid Price – The Liv-ex Mid Price, which is based on merchant transactions, is the most robust measure for pricing wines available in the market. It is calculated by finding the mid-point between the current highest bid price and lowest offer price on the Liv-ex trading platform.

Each price is verified by our valuation committee to ensure that the number is robust after taking into account all data at our disposal, including merchant offer prices and historical Liv-ex transaction prices.

Mid-prices are used to calculate the Liv-ex indices which track the price performance of the most traded wines in the world and for monthly valuations.

List matching tools

For merchants needing to quickly value their customers’ wine lists, there are web-based tools available like Wine Matcher that allow merchants to take wine lists and quickly add valuation information using actual prices transacted on the fine wine market.

To produce a valuation for a client, you just need an Excel document with the wine names and quantities. You can upload this to Wine Matcher, and a few minutes later, it will be ready to download with price information added. You can then share this with your client.

Businesses like Farthinghoe are using it to accurately price their clients’ cellars.  

Rebecca Adams, responsible for Sales and Marketing at Farthinghoe, described how she can save several hours on one list alone: ‘Life was so painful before Wine Matcher because I would have to research each line individually vintage by vintage, wine by wine and it can take hours – especially if there’s over one hundred cases of stock needing to be priced up.’ 

The tool is only available to members of Liv-ex on select membership types, but it’s a good option for businesses that regularly require valuations, and don’t want to invest in tech development. 

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Automation

Like many industries, the wine trade is beginning to embrace technology and valuations can also be generated automatically and updated in real-time. You can produce valuation reports directly from your internal systems – for your own lists, for your client reserves, and for any other lists you receive. These can then be shared with customers if you wish. The only manual intervention needed is when you email this out.

Some merchants remove manual intervention altogether. They give their clients access to pricing information on demand, by allowing them to track the valuation of their portfolios on an online web portal.

This option requires some investment in tech development, although it’s likely that your existing ERP or other system may already support it. This is a good option for merchants who manage several portfolios and want to be able to offer valuations quickly. Experts offer free scoping sessions to explore the benefits and costs.

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Methods for collectors

Merchant services

Many wine merchants now offer portfolio valuation as a complementary service. Often they use the techniques mentioned in this report to provide fast and accurate valuations for your portfolios and use independent data from Liv-ex, whose members are licensed to share price data with their customers. Just ask your merchant for help.


Speaking to a trusted merchant is a particularly good idea when you have rare or damaged stock. They can advise on adjustments to the Market Price.

Cellar management tools

Vinous’ Cellar Watch is a tool for private collectors of fine wine. If you are a collector, and your merchant is unable to provide valuation services, you can use it to view price information from the fine wine market. You can upload your portfolio and track wine values in real time. You’ll be sent a monthly valuation report and you can also generate reports on demand. 

One-off professional valuations

There are various reasons why other professionals might require fine wine valuations. Often these are needed for insurance quotes or to settle legal issues. If you need a one-off valuation, you probably don’t want to invest in any long-term software. Instead, bespoke quotations are available on request.

Concluding thoughts

With so many factors affecting the value of wine, it’s no surprise that valuations can vary considerably. This causes issues across the industry on both the supply and demand sides. But as the industry further embraces technology and data, our ability to place accurate valuations on wine of all appellations and vintages improves.


Accuracy is one thing. Speed is another. We can do it now in a fraction of the time it previously took, with solutions available for most types and sizes of businesses and most needs cases.


With faster, more accurate valuations available, the wine industry and all its participants take another step towards being safer, more transparent and more efficient. We can all drink to that.

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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.