Decanter World Wine AwardsBordeaux prices 'stabilising': analysts
- Monday 26 November 2012
Sign of stability? Lafite demand 'bouyant'
Analysts at trading platform Liv-ex believe that a 12-month period of wine 'market correction', including price drops of up to 35% on some top chateaux, may be levelling out.
'Prices have been flat for Bordeaux first growths in the last three or four months,' said Jack Hibberd, head of data and research at Liv-ex told Decanter.com.
Given the price drops, demand for some top Bordeaux wines is buoyant, even if no region is showing explosive growth. 'With Lafite, we're still seeing very good demand for the 2009 vintage,' said Hibberd.
Drinkers and investors alike appear to be taking advantage of the come-down from a price spike in 2010 and the first half of 2011. Lafite 2009 in particular is on the market for £8,000, down from more than £13,000 at its peak.
'You can get some excellent wines at the moment for not particularly big prices,' said Hibberd, adding that Haut Brion 2003 is selling for less than £3,000 per case. 'That's still quite a big ask, but it's within reach if you want a first growth on the dinner table as a treat,' he said.
Kate Janecek of London wine merchant Justerini & Brooks, writing in the London Loves Business publication, said this week that she has sold more Lafite, Latour and Haut Brion in the last two months than in the last two years.
Others were more cautious. A spokesperson for Berry Bros & Rudd told Decanter.com that it is 'seeing a continued interest in Lafite, but not the volume sales of 18 months to two years ago'.
Looking ahead, Hibberd said that the health of the fine wine market should be easier to read in early 2013. 'Everyone's waiting for Chinese New Year [to see],' he said.
More generally, 2012 has seen a continued broadening of the wine investment market. Alongside higher demand for top Burgundy and Italian wines, Hibberd said that 'second level' Bordeaux is also showing promise.
Have your say!
Pascale Bevat
December 14 18:53
Francis, Eleanor Wine is in my opinion the most useful tool for mechants buying Bordeaux. Info about login details can be found on their website: eleanor-wine.com
francis lloyd
November 30 16:07
Eleanor-wine.com? how does one obtain log in details....
Pascale Bevat
November 28 13:23
The way market price information, received by Liv-ex, is used by all types of media, and is considered as the true value, disturbs me in the sense that these data isn’t complete and sufficient enough.
Liv-ex states; Liv-ex is the leading source of independent fine wine price information and research. Of course, their system is one way of gathering fine wine market data but it’s far from sufficient, which is displayed in the case of valuating the Noble Crus fund.
For example, Jack Hibberd (head of data and research at Liv-ex) states in this article that prices have been flat for Bordeaux first growths in the last three or four months.
My aversion to these types of statements are that they are too restricted. Liv-ex largely works with second hand dealers from the UK. But if we look at the Eleanor-wine.com system, which is displaying prices of all the negociants in the market and offers direct purchase possibility. We see that the price of Lafite is still decreasing the last three to four months with 5.8% and the prices offered by the negociants are even more competitive than Liv-ex displays in this article.
Therefore I would suggest that in writing such an article, consult more sources than Liv-ex as they provide a limited picture of the market environment.