Fine wine news

Overall prices for fine wine fell by an average of 15 per cent last year, figures from the Liv-ex Fine Wine Exchange show.

It was reported last week that the Liv-ex Claret Chip Index, which tracks the top-scoring Bordeaux first growths of the last 15 years, dropped 18 per cent in 2011, yet the Fine Wine 100 and Fine Wine 50 show a slightly better picture.

The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100, which tracks the price movement of 100 of the most sought-after fine wines and is most-often used as the industry's benchmark, ended the year at 286.33. This is a fall of 3.9 per cent in December and of 14.85 per cent over 2011.

Much of the disappointing result is due to a steady decline in trading in the second half of the year. Before then, prices for first growths continued to rise slowly from their high-performing year in 2010.

Commentators have largely put the results down to an expensive en primeur campaign and the reassessment of the 2008 vintage, as well as volatility in the wider global investment market.

Meanwhile, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 50, which tracks the daily price movement of Bordeaux first growths, fell 16.62 per cent over the year.

However, this was largely down to a huge drop in demand between Christmas and New Year, the Exchange noted. The index fell 4.96 per cent last month, the fourth-largest monthly fall since January 2000.

In the wider wine investment market, the Liv-ex Fine Wine Investables index fared much better, which could reflect the growing demand for more value wines.

The index consists of Bordeaux red wines from 24 leading chateaux and fell by 9.97 per cent in 2011.

Liv-ex suggested that UK-based fine wine consumers could take advantage of some of these price falls. Many of the top-rated first growth wines have fallen into a more affordable 'buy zone', while the attractiveness of second growths is likely to continue into 2012.

Posted by John Yates