Wine investment: Why the Super Tuscans are bucking the trend in a weak market

Tuscany is an ongoing bright spot in a weak market, according to international merchant Bordeaux Index and its LiveTrade online trading platform, and recent vintages of top Super Tuscans have led trading on this Italian region’s wines in 2025 (see chart below). [subscriber-content]While Sassicaia remains a top seller, Bordeaux Index’s Geraint Carter said recently: ‘Tignanello and Solaia [have] continued their strong upward trend, thanks to a compelling mix of quality, value and pricing stability.’ Shaun Bishop, CEO of California-based merchant JJ Buckley, told Decanter : ‘We’ve seen good demand for great Super Tuscan brands like Sassicaia, Solaia and Tignanello, and prices have been steady versus last year. However, he said that ‘lesser-known brands, even with high critical acclaim, have seen softer demand’. Italy’s Piedmont has seen softer demand across the board, he added. US import tariffs, set at 15% on EU wines in August, could be a factor to watch, although it was too soon to properly assess their impact. Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, highlighted Tuscany’s relative price stability in a declining market. The Tuscan portion of its Italy 100 index dipped 1.3% in the first half of 2025, while the Piedmont portion dropped 5.6%. The multi-region Liv-ex 1000 index fell 4.7%. Despite recent decline, Liv-ex’s Italy 100 was up more than 12% over five years. Rare Masseto collection comes to auction Auction house Christie’s said it will offer an ‘extremely rare’ private collection of leading Super Tuscan Masseto during a wider, London-based online wine auction to run from 2-16 September. It includes large-format bottles and features every Masseto vintage from 2020 back to the debut 1986 wine, ‘which is labelled Ornellaia Merlot Toscana Vino da Tavola’. Noah May, head of wine and spirits at Christie’s for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said it was an exciting opportunity for collectors to explore the wine’s evolution. He agreed that Tuscany has stayed ‘pretty strong’ on the market and he highlighted the top wines’ relative value, alongside quality in the bottle. 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 . Tuscany has held up well against the broader fine wine market backdrop of an extended period of drifting prices. This is interesting as the price pattern since 2021 was comparable to that of Champagne, which has some logic given the brand-driven nature of both regions and their appeal to new market entrants. However, Tuscany has proven more resilient, perhaps because of the smaller volumes involved. Interest in the excellent 2021 and 2016 vintages may have helped. Piedmont has seen a more substantial decrease in demand, but this is not unusual, it remaining a region where activity waxes and wanes. Despite the quality of the wines, it sits towards the periphery of the fine wine trading space. It is difficult to know what would change the context of Piedmont activity – it is not a region that new buyers generally turn to. Lower prices may attract attention, however. Wine trade gala The Golden Vines branches out to Miami Exclusive wine and spirits event The Golden Vines will take place in the US for the first time, organisers have said. Miami will host the annual event’s fifth edition from 7-9 November. A packed schedule includes masterclasses, lunches and gala dinners featuring leading producers, from Château Lafite Rothschild to California’s Harlan Estate. Created by Liquid Icons, a group founded by the late, great Gérard Basset OBE MW MS and friend Alexander A ‘Sasha’ Lushnikov, tickets to The Golden Vines weekend cost $15,000 per person. A charity auction of ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experiences will be held to support the Gérard Basset Foundation, which focuses on education, training and mentoring. Crurated, an online fine wine members’ platform, also said it will offer bespoke benefits to a select group of Golden Vines clients via a partnership with Liquid Icons. Champagne launch sparks global interest A first single-plot cuvée from Champagne Barons de Rothschild has recently debuted at auction in London, and offered collectors a fresh name to watch. A three-bottle collection of ‘Le Grand Clos 2019’ sold for £16,120, including buyer’s premium, via auction house Bonhams in London in July – signalling the new cuvée’s global launch. Respectively numbered 0001, 0002 and 0003, the bottles have been signed by three central members of the Rothschild family: Benjamin de Rothschild, Eric de Rothschild, and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild. Only 1,788 bottles of Le Grand Clos 2019 have been produced, by chef de cave Guillaume Lété. Grapes are sourced from a small ‘clos’ spanning 52 ‘ares’ (0.52 hectares) and acquired by Champagne Barons de Rothschild in 2013. The plot is located in the premier cru village of Vertus, where the 20-year-old company also recently inaugurated a new winery and cellar building. ‘This historical release inspired global collectors, and we received strong interest from every continent,’ said Amayes Aouli, global head of wine and spirits at Bonhams. Proceeds from the sale will go to Guy Laliberté’s One Drop Foundation, a charity helping to provide safe drinking water, and the winning bidder is also entitled to a tour of the new Vertus winery, plus lunch or dinner with a Rothschild family member. Several Champagne houses have released new iterations of top cuvées in recent months , including Pol Roger’s Sir Winston Churchill 2018, and Krug Grande Cuvée 173ème Edition. [/subscriber-content] [breakout] 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. [/breakout] Related articles Wine investment: Fine wine prices continue to fall Wine investment: Top value Burgundy offers value in downbeat market Wine investment: Taking the pulse of Bordeaux 2024 en primeur

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