Liv-ex is the global marketplace for the wine trade, with over 440 members worldwide. We offer business services that span trading, data, fulfilment and automation technology to a diverse group of wine businesses – from ambitious start-ups to established merchants.

With over £70m opportunities across 15,000 different products, Liv-ex is the world’s largest marketplace for wine. Buying and selling is easy: All bids and offers are firm commitments, and we manage fulfilment. This means that you can trade confidently with hundreds of businesses through one account.

We’ve got price data covered, too. Liv-ex members enjoy access to our large database, which doesn’t just show listed prices, but also contains more than a decade of real, standardised transactions – the most accurate prices available.

If you have a wine business, you can access this easily – just by signing up and getting approval from our membership committee. Then as soon as you’re tech-ready, all of this can be automated so that you really make the most out of it.

Our story

Liv-ex was founded in 2000 by two stockbrokers, James Miles and Justin Gibbs. It started with a group of 10 founding members in London, and a vision to make fine wine trading more transparent, efficient and safe.

Since then, membership has grown to over 400 merchants from 36 countries worldwide, and our services have expanded to include data, fulfilment and automation technology. This has all been made possible due to the continued support of our members, to whom we owe a huge thanks.

With our members’ help, Liv-ex continues to obsess about making the wine market more transparent, efficient and safe and removing barriers to trade. You can read Co-Founder James Miles’s thoughts on Liv-ex’s role in facilitating this here.

Aug 2000

The SIB contract is introduced to standardise trading.

June 2000

The first trade on Liv-ex takes place when a 12×75 case of Gruaud Larose 1982 trades for £964.

April 2000

Liv-ex is founded by former stockbrokers James Miles and Justin Gibbs.

2002

Trading on Liv-ex becomes anonymous.

2003

Cellar Watch is launched, enabling collectors to track fine wine prices.

2004

The Liv-ex 100 Index is launched.

2005

Our first monthly fine wine market report is shared.

2006

Bloomberg launches the Liv-ex 100 on its terminals.

2007

Liv-ex acquires Vine, a warehouse services and logistics business, to help streamline the settlement of trades.

Nov 2008

The first Power 100 list of the world’s top fine wine brands is produced. This has since been produced annually in conjuction with the drinks business. A full set of power lists can be found on our reports page.

Mar 2008

The Liv-ex blog is launched for sharing our fine wine market insights.

Jun 2009

Liv-ex’s first reclassification of Bordeaux is released. This has been recalculated every other year since. The latest version, created in 2017, can be viewed here. It has been expanded to include wines from all around the world.

Jun 2010

Liv-ex membership hits 300 across 30 countries.

2011

LWIN, Liv-ex’s unique identifier for fine wine, is introduced.

Dec 2012

“Liv-ex” is featured as Bloomberg Business’s buzzword of the day.

2012

Cellar Watch moves to its own website, where it still lives today (www.cellar-watch.com)

Mar 2012

We interview critic Robert Parker as part of a series of articles on wine industry figures.

Oct 2014

SIB Passport is introduced, helping merchants to trade more efficiently.

Jan 2014

The Liv-ex 1000 Index is launched, reflecting the increasingly broad fine wine market.

Nov 2016

By November 2016, all Liv-ex services were available via API and DMA was being used by customers.

Aug & Sep 2016

Liv-ex’s first trades for Chinese and English wine: Nyetimber Cuvee Classic 2010 and Ao Yun 2013

May 2016

Liv-ex wins the Supply Chain Initiative of the Year award for SIB Passport and Instant Transfer.

Aug 2017

The Liv-ex database records its 50 millionth data point.

June 2017

Wine Matcher is launched, enabling members to clean and price wine lists in a matter of minutes. It goes on to win the Supply Chain Initiative award from the drinks business.

June 2017

We commit to making LWIN free forever with the adoption of a Creative Commons licence for its dictionary.

March 2018

Liv-ex begins to roll out its new mobile-friendly trading platform. New features are added frequently, such as the ability for members to bid against list prices.

May 2018

Liv-ex wins Supply Chain Initiative of the Year award for the third year in a row. This year’s initiative is to make LWIN freely available for all to use. “Our judges praised Liv-ex’s innovative LWIN system … and applauded the company’s ‘generous and selfless’ decision to make the service free for other companies to use, acting ‘for the greater good of the wine trade'”, says the drinks business.

2019

Liv-ex’s automation program is fully launched following a number of success stories from beta users. The technology is being used by Liv-ex members to streamline processes and grow their sales. Its success was recognised by the drinks business magazine in May, when it was awarded Supply Chain Initiative of the Year award – the fourth consecutive time that Liv-ex has won this prize.

DATA

The most trusted database of fine wine prices at your fingertips, and a host of online products to help you make the most of it.

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TRADING

Join the largest pool of fine wine merchants globally and take advantage of unparalleled opportunities to buy and sell wine.

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SETTLEMENT

From order through payment to delivery, transactions are expertly cared for by Liv-ex, reducing cost, time and risk.

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The smartest way to price, source and sell wine

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