Recent trading activity
So far this week Burgundy has accounted for 39.9% of trade by value. As the region’s 2021 En Primeur campaign gets underway, its 2019 and 2020 vintages have continued to lead on the secondary market. They currently accounted for 30% of the region’s trade.
As mentioned in Friday’s market overview, extremely limited volumes and tight allocations of new releases seem to be driving buyers to already physical vintages in the secondary market.
Among other Burgundy vintages, some of the big brands changing hands included Domaine de la Romanee-Conti’s 2015, 2012 and 2002 vintages, along with Domaine Armand Rousseau Chambertin-Clos de Beze 2016.
Finding value in Masseto
Back in November, we looked at the price performance of the Super Tuscan’s in the Italy 100 index. Tignanello was the best-performing, followed by Ornellaia and Sassicaia.
At the time, Masseto had the smallest price increases overall. However, in recent months its prices have started to rally. The 2014 vintage, for example, has risen 20.2% since August.
Using Liv-ex’s ‘Fair Value’ methodology, Masseto prices are 76% correlated to Wine Advocate scores.
The methodology hypothesises that, over time, wines will tend toward their ‘Fair Value’ price (i.e. the line of regression).
Typically, though not always, the most ‘undervalued’ wines provide the best returns as the price moves up to ‘Fair Value’ in the secondary market, whereas ‘overvalued’ wines provide the worst return.
As the chart below shows, the 100-point 2015 vintage falls below the line, indicating that it might represent relative value.
Both the 2016 and 2015 vintages were scored 100 points by Monica Larner for the Wine Advocate, yet the 2015 is available for a 16% discount.
In her tasting note for the 2016, Larner commented that ‘this is the first time that an Italian wine has earned 100 points in successive vintages’ and added that ‘these vintages are identical twins, two perfect wines’.
In her note for the 2015 she said that ‘its many working pieces fit together with precision like a well-oiled machine’ making a ‘spectacular bottle’.
Buyers looking for other options may also consider the 97-point 2013 and 2017 vintages, which also fall below the line.
There are currently over 1,566 LIVE Tuscany opportunities on your exchange.
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.
