Ups and downs for Ausone in February

Ausone’s 2009 has gone from the best performer in January to the worst performer in February as the Liv-ex 100 dips again slightly.

The index tracking the 100 leading wines on the secondary market dipped for the eleventh consecutive month.

The drop was the same as January, 0.9% down to 252.50, and this is the first time in a decade that the index has declined in February following the equally rare January dip.

Burgundy dominated the top performers however, the increasingly mentioned Chambertin Clos de Bèze from Armand Rousseau being the best performer last month.

The 2009 topped the chart with a 10% rise to over £8,800 a case. The 2002 is the best-performing wine on the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 over the last two years as well.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 2009 La Tâche was close behind with an 8.6% jump to over £24,000 a case.

Following up came, what are now, frequent visitors to the best performing lists, Montrose and Pontet Canet, whose 2000 and 2010 vintages saw respective rises of 5.5% to £1,160 a case and 4.2% to £1,406 a case.

Cheval Blanc’s 1998 also went up 4.2% to £3,818.

The 1996 vintage took a beating among the first growths, Latour, Lafite and Margaux’s offerings declining 5.1%, 6.1% and 6.6% respectively.

Haut-Brion’s 2010 suffered a 6.7% knock to hit £5,000 a case and the high-flying 2009 Ausone of January was knocked rather rudely off its perch to the tune of 7.6% down to £9,663 having only briefly poked its head over the £10,000 mark.

Part of the problem, as Liv-ex noted on its blog, is that even at its current price it remains twice the price of the 2008 which has 98 Parker points while the ’09 is only just on 98+.