Bordeaux’s share of trade on the Liv-ex online wine market has fallen to a monthly average of 74 per cent so far this year from 79 per cent in 2014, according to the London-based exchange’s latest Cellar Watch market report.
In 2010, as Chinese demand was driving a bull market in top wines from the region, the share was as high as 95 per cent.
The wine market has come through a turbulent seven years, sparked by the 2008 financial crisis and then a selloff driven in part by China’s crackdown on lavish gift-giving. High prices for the critically acclaimed 2009 and 2010 Bordeaux vintages discouraged buyers in the U.S. and U.K., while lesser vintages between 2011 and 2013 proved hard to sell.
“After its trade share plummeted to an all time low of 65.5 per cent in June, Bordeaux accounted for 75.2 per cent in July,” Liv-ex said. “First growth share held steady,” with the five top left-bank wine estates representing 31 per cent of Bordeaux activity and Chateau Mouton Rothschild trading the most.
Within Bordeaux, trading in the 2005 vintage dropped back in July after peaking in June amid a surge of investor interest, as U.S. critic Robert Parker published revised scores for those wines. Trading volume shifted more towards the 2010 vintage during July, according to the Cellar Watch report.
Index Trends
The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index fell in July, snapping three months of gains and leaving it up just 0.6 per cent for the year, according to Liv-ex.
The index, which comprises 10 recent vintages from each of the five first-growth producers, has fallen for the past four years and is still trading 40 per cent below its mid-2011 peak.
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