Liv-ex indices stay flat but Right Bank rising

June saw a distinct lack of direction on the fine wine indices according to Liv-ex but a two year retrospective of leading Bordeaux estates shows how strong the Right Bank is.

The fine wine monitor announced that prices stayed “relatively” flat throughout June, with top flight Bordeaux and Burgundy taking the biggest falls in price.

The Liv-ex 50 and Liv-ex 100, which respectively track the most recent 10 vintages of the first growths and 10 most sought after fine wines, apparently saw a 0.4% loss over the course of the month.

On the other hand, Champagne and cheaper clarets were stronger performers.

As was explained on its blog: “In periods of market uncertainty, traders tend to offload more expensive wines to minimise risk, seeking out value wines instead.”

The best performer was Krug’s 1996, which, with a mid-June price of £2,650 for six, had risen 10%.

Pape Clement 2010 (a 100-point wine as was noted), Cristal’s 2002 and 2003 and Montrose 2003 were among the top five performers too, showing anywhere between 6% and 9% rises.

Margaux 2009 showed the worst slump during the month, down 7% to £6,200 a case.

Latour 2006 dropped 5.9% to £3,980 and Lafite 2010 went down 5.2% to £6,400.

Pétrus 2009 and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2005 completed the top five fallers, down 4.3% and 4% respectively – but still holding strong prices of over £25,000 apiece.

The good Champagne performance is a continuation of rising demand for good prestige Champagne which has been building since last year.

Krug, Cristal, Dom Pérignon and Comtes de Champagne in particular have seen buoyant sales of late.

Meanwhile, looking back over the last two years to the fine wine market’s peak in June 2011, the index found that it was the Right Bank that had been the strongest performer.

It had already been noticed at the end of last year that the leading indices covered the Right Bank’s leading estates.

Since June 2011, the index tracking the leading 10 châteaux in Saint Emilion and Pomerol has risen 13.8%, posting an 11^th consecutive rise last month.

The indices covering the top five Right Bank and Sauternes and 20 leading Left Bank properties have fared reasonably well but the first growths, their second wines (those in particular having dropped over 30 points) and the Liv-ex 100 have seen large drops in value.

The Liv-ex 100 is currently 24.8% below its June 2011 level. For more on fine wine performance in June, see Aston Lovell’s round-up here