Wine investment: Top-tier Burgundy prices soften
The quiet secondary market performance in 2024 led to a slight dip in prices of top Burgundy – which collector's were quick to spot.
Opportunistic collectors have been replenishing their cellars with blue-chip Burgundy wines at lower prices, but the market’s near-term outlook has remained uncertain. Buyer interest in certain top-tier Burgundy producers picked up in 2024, within a challenging fine wine trading environment, according to some merchants.
Bordeaux Index reported ‘a big recovery’ in trading volumes of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) and Rousseau wines in the first nine months of 2024, for example.
Geraint Carter, of the investment team at Bordeaux Index, cited the merchant’s access to ‘impressive single-owner collections’, but also said price corrections on top-end Burgundy have ‘created attractive entry points for buyers to restock their cellars’.
Blue-chip Burgundy prices dropped by an average of about a quarter in the two years to 30 September 2024, according to data from Bordeaux Index and its LiveTrade online trading platform (see chart below). Prices remained 21% higher than in September 2018, though.
Matthew Hemming MW, group wine director at Vinum Fine Wines, with offices in Singapore, Taiwan and the UK, said many established Burgundy names on the market have seen a bounce.
Top names such as Rousseau and Roumier have a pedigree, and ‘the market recognises the [wines’] fundamental quality’, Hemming said. ‘I think [they] have dropped off in price to a point where people were prepared to come back in. And in the last few weeks and months, we’ve seen volume of trade in things like Rousseau really pick up again.’
Some data offered a more cautious view of Burgundy trading, amid a mixture of subdued wine market atmosphere and macroeconomic uncertainty. Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, said in November the bid-to-offer ratio for wines in its Burgundy 150 index was 0.14, down from 0.3 in September.
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Following the recent downturn, it said its analysis concluded that several DRC wines may fall further in price, particularly Echezeaux.
Yet, it added: ‘There is some indication that Romanée-Conti and La Tâche are closer to their price floors.’
It highlighted DRC’s Romanée-Conti as a potential opportunity for buyers with enough capital. Taking a long view, Liv-ex said all DRC wines ‘have seen dramatic price increases over the past 20 years’.
The Bordeaux Index view
Burgundy has been an interesting segment of the wine market across 2023-2024, with the outsized price gains from 2021-2022 partially reversing.
While this has at times seemed slightly dramatic, the context that top Burgundy prices remain firmly above their 2021 levels suggests the contrary.
The noteworthy dynamic from 2024 in particular is that falling prices have catalysed buying activity (in contrast to Champagne, for example, where the price pattern isn’t dissimilar).
This is because Burgundy is very much a specific and distinct part of the market, where the supply-demand dynamics that govern all wine pricing are especially acute. Even in a period of falling prices, buyers are aware that pristine top Burgundy is rare, when global demand is considered, and therefore opportunities to buy attractively will not necessarily be repeated.
January will see the 2023 vintage Burgundy en primeur campaign, likely at pricing similar to the excellent 2022 vintage. This won’t trouble the top blue-chip wines but will no doubt be more problematic for the tiers below, where buyer appetite is overstated in up-markets and resale liquidity is poor – they are wines that simply look expensive even at today’s levels.
Fine wine & spirits specialist Bordeaux Index kindly sponsors this section of Decanter, and provides its view on the market here every issue. It can be found at bordeauxindex.com.
Proceeds down at smaller Hospices auction
Sales at the 164th Hospices de Beaune charity auction in November hit €14.4m (£12m), excluding buyer’s premium, host Sotheby’s has said. That’s down from sales of nearly €23.3m in 2023.
Burgundy’s smaller 2024 harvest was significant; the latest auction featured 449 lots, versus 770 a year earlier. Sotheby’s said the average price per barrel sold in 2024 rose slightly, to €31,540.
It also reported a record number of registrants for the sale, and participants in 32 countries. The ‘presidents’ barrel’ – a special charity lot that contained Beaune 1er cru Les Bressandes in 2024 – sold for €360,000 to Brazil’s Alaor Pereira Lino, of merchant Anima Vinum, who has created a museum for Hospices de Beaune wines.
One participant donated an extra €100,000 to the presidents’ barrel’s chosen charities: Médecins Sans Frontières and the Global Gift Foundation.
Tignanello under the hammer
Bidders have competed for a piece of Tuscan vinous history at a Christie’s auction of Tignanello wines sourced directly from the winery, and featuring the debut 1971 vintage.
Two single-bottle lots of Tignanello 1971 fetched £813 and £750, including buyer’s premium, versus a pre-sale high estimate of £500 per lot. Christie’s held the London auction to mark 50 years since Italy’s Antinori winemaking family first released Tignanello, a Sangiovese-dominant blend that includes classic ‘Bordeaux’ grape varieties, but sitting outside the Chianti Classico denomination.
The wine is today considered a pioneer of the Super Tuscan movement. ‘The saleroom was buzzing with many bidders,’ said Tim Triptree MW, the international director for Christie’s wines & spirits department.
All lots sold, he said. A nine-magnum lot spanning every vintage produced between 2000 and 2009 sold for £5,250, including buyer’s premium (high estimate: £4,000); there is no Tignanello 2002 vintage. A 225-litre barrel of Tignanello 2024, scheduled for release in 2027 and to be bottled in a format of the buyer’s choice, sold for £47,000 (estimate: £24,000 to £50,000).
Three double magnums (3x300cl) of Tignanello 1999, 2000 and 2001 sold for £5,000 (high estimate: £2,800). Marchese Piero Antinori described Tignanello as a ‘milestone in Tuscan winemaking’, and ‘the wine that I’m probably most attached to’.
Prices for top Super Tuscan wines on the secondary market have dipped since late 2022, but remained historically high after strong gains prior to this (see November 2024 issue).
Disclaimer: Decanter’s Marketwatch pages are published for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice. Wine prices may vary and they can go down as well as up. Seek independent advice where necessary and be aware that wine investment is unregulated in several markets, including the UK.
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Chris Mercer is a Bristol-based freelance editor and journalist who spent nearly four years as digital editor of Decanter.com, having previously been Decanter’s news editor across online and print.
He has written about, and reported on, the wine and food sectors for more than 10 years for both consumer and trade media.
Chris first became interested in the wine world while living in Languedoc-Roussillon after completing a journalism Masters in the UK. These days, his love of wine commonly tests his budgeting skills.
Beyond wine, Chris also has an MSc in food policy and has a particular interest in sustainability issues. He has also been a food judge at the UK’s Great Taste Awards.