Liv-ex launches Fine Wine 1000 index

Liv-ex has launched a new fine wine index covering more wine regions to reflect the changing shape of what is now a US$4 billion market.

Pétrus 1990 is one of the wines in the Bordeaux Legends 50

The new index, the Fine Wine 1000, is for merchants, investors and consumers and monitors Champagne, the Rhône, Italy and the New World as well as Bordeaux and Burgundy.

The range of wines now trading on the Liv-ex marketplace has risen by 85% since 2010 with Bordeaux falling in dominance while other regions have increased their share.

In 2001 when Liv-ex created the Fine Wine 100 to track the leading labels, Bordeaux accounted for 92% of the trade today it is around 80%.

Liv-ex Director James Miles commented: “We have launched the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 index to reflect the increasing breadth and depth of the fine wine market.

“The index is the broadest measure of performance available, while its sub-indices offer an invaluable insight into underlying trends. The most noticeable of these is just how well regions outside of Bordeaux are doing.

“Many of the Burgundy, Champagne, Italy and New World wines are close to record levels, having risen by 8-9% in the last year on average.”

The wines on the Fine Wine 1000 represent 79% of the market activity by value and 55% by volume.

The index is sub-divided into seven indices. These include:

The Bordeaux 500 tracking the last 10 physical vintages of the top 50 Left and Right Bank estates.

The Bordeaux Legends 50 a selection of 50 exceptional wines from 1982 onwards.

The Burgundy 150, ten most recent vintages of 15 white and red Burgundies including six Domaine de la Romanée-Conti labels.

The Champagne 50 with the most recent physical vintages for 12 Champagnes.

The Rhône 100 with the last 10 physical vintages from five southern and five northern Rhône estates.

The Italy 100 comprised of the last 10 vintages from five Super Tuscan and five other leading Italian producers.

The Rest of the World 50, 10 last vintages from five wines from Spain, Portugal, the US and Australia. Interestingly, Taylor’s Port is part of the line-up a rare inclusion for a fortified wine.

The wines making up the separate indices can be seen on the following page.

The wines included on the list mirror very closely the best performing wines at auction at Sotheby’s last year and reconfirm Liv-ex’s end of year report which put the spotlight on regions outside of the Left Bank.