Italy bucks fine wine’s downward trend

Italian wines on the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 bucked the general downward trend in January and saw the second highest level of trading.

The new index from Liv-ex has seven sub-indices and is designed to track the best performing wines from across Bordeaux, Burgundy, Italy, Champagne, the Rhône and the rest of the world.

The index fell 1% in total with the “Bordeaux Legends 50” sub-index seeing the biggest loss of -3.2%, the next biggest loss was sustained by the Burgundy 150 which dropped 1.1% over the month.

The Italy 100 saw a 0.6% rise over the course of the month and is the one of the best performing indices over the last two years, up 12.2% and over the last five years with a 43.3% rise.

Liv-ex explained on its blog last week that: “Positive reviews from critics such as Stephen Tanzer and Antonio Galloni for the Barbarescos and Barolos 2009 and 2010 have boosted demand.”

Gaja was apparently one of the strongest performing labels over the course of the month.

Looking at the results from the first month since the index was activated it largely conforms to current trends, not least of which is mirroring the Fine Wine 100’s January slump.

Bordeaux is down, having slipped considerably over the last two years, while the rest of France and the fine wine world has performed strongly, though the Rhône dipped somewhat last year, down 2.8% and it has been the quietest performing index in the long haul.

When viewed over a five year period however, it is clear how far fine wine has come and that it remains in relatively rude health.