Every Friday, we take a look at activity on the fine wine market in our weekly ‘Talking Trade’ post. Highlights from the past week include:
- The USA has had a surge in trading activity off the back of the Opus One library release.
- This week’s top-traded wines hail from California, Champagne and Bordeaux.
- Liv-ex has released coverage of La Place Autumn Releases, as well as blogs analysing the LX 1000 and LX 100 indices.
Regional trade in the past week
With 11.9% of trade by value, considerably higher than the previous week and its August share, the USA was in the spotlight this week. Several high-value wines from California drove the region’s trade share, with Opus One 2018 and Screaming Eagle 2013 both featuring among this week’s top traded wines.
Tuscany and the ‘Others‘ category also improved on the previous week, with trade shares of 7.5% and 7.0% respectively. Champagne saw a slight increase, rising from 18.5% to 18.7% this week, buoyed by the active trading of Dom Pérignon 2013 and Louis Roederer Cristal 2015.
However, these gains came at the expense of Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône, and Piedmont, which recorded declines in their trade shares. Despite Château Mouton Rothschild 2020 featuring on the most active list this week, Bordeaux’s trade share declined from 38.3% to 33.7%.
The Rhône faced the most significant decline, marking its third consecutive week of decreased trading activity, dropping from 4.9% to 1.6% this week.
What were this week’s top-traded wines?
This week’s top-traded wines included Louis Roederer Cristal 2015 and Dom Pérignon 2013 from Champagne, as well as Château Mouton Rothschild 2020 from Bordeaux.
However, the spotlight this week was on Napa Valley’s Opus One. The 2018 vintage, which claimed the top spot as the most actively traded wine, last traded at £2,860 per 12×75, a 3.6% increase from its original release price (£2,760 per case). The wine’s Market Price has declined significantly from its all-time high of £3,520 per case in May.
This surge in trading activity for Opus One 2018 (at a lower price than its peak a few months back) may be attributed to Opus One’s recent library release of its 2018 and 2019 vintages through La Place de Bordeaux this week. The 2018 vintage was rereleased internationally at £3,300 per case, significantly higher than its last trade price.
Opus One 2018 trades on Liv-ex
Which wines have been released on La Place de Bordeaux this week?
La Place Autumn Releases are now in full swing with wines from around the world being released.
The below are a list of wines that Liv-ex have covered so far this week:
Opus One library release of 2018 (£3,300 per case) and 2019 (£3,192 per case)
Vin de Constance 2020 (£564 per 12x50cl)
Clos Apalta 2020 (£948 per 12×75)
Masseto 2020 (£6,800-£7,000 per case)
Almaviva 2021 (£1,448 per 12×75)
Solaia 2020 (£3,240 per 12×75)
Y d’Yquem (2021 £1,440 per case)
Weekly insights recap
Along with coverage of La Place Autumn releases, Liv-ex published a Market Update for members analysing pricing trends and trade movements observed in these early releases. Another Market Update was published looking back at the fine wine market so far this year.
Liv-ex also updated its indices, and published blogs analysing the movements of the Liv-ex 100 and Liv-ex 1000, which are critical benchmarks for tracking fine wine performance. Moreover, members had access to technical analysis of the Liv-ex 1000, offering more detailed analysis of the index.
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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 620+ merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £100m of bids and offers across 16,000 wines.
