More positive signs for fine wine

The tail end of August has offered more reasons for fine wine followers to be cheerful as the value of bids on Liv-ex increased by £1 million.

In what is traditionally the quietest time of year for fine wine, the Liv-ex marketplace saw the value of bids for the week of the 15-21 August rise by £1m with the bid/offer ratio apparently pushing 0.46 – the highest it’s been since March and with a ratio of 0.50 typically being where prices begin to rise.

The Liv-ex 50 which monitors the first growths has been steady for a month now – “positive signs?” asked Liv-ex and a more positive trend is clearly developing, building on a decent July.

Lafite had three vintages, 2003, 2000 and 1995 in the top traded wines by value in the week. There appears to have been a slight turn in Lafite’s fortunes of late, ditto with Margaux and that estate’s 2005 was also highly traded by value in the last week.

Prices may not be rising (it should be noted) but this sort of attention is encouraging after well over a year of declines.

One estate that is defying the slump is Mouton and Liv-ex also recently noted that as Lafite continues to decline slightly, Mouton’s best vintages such as the 2000 are trading at a premium.

The 2000 Mouton is still trading for over £10,000 a case, unlike the Lafite which is down to £9,985, even though the Mouton has a slightly lower Parker score, 96+ compared to Lafite’s 98.