Taylor’s Port boosts RoW 50

Although the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 declined in February, the “Rest of the World 50” continues to rise – buoyed by Taylor’s Port.

The Rest of the World 50 has been driving upwards for some time now, gaining 3.2% since July 2014, but has previously been dominated by the sub-index’s New World wines such as Opus One, Dominus and Penfolds Grange.

But of the top 10 best-performing wines on the index since last summer, four of them, including the first and third-placed, are Taylor’s vintage Ports.

“Leading the charge” as Liv-ex said, was the 1994 which has shot up 41.4% since July, far out-stripping Penfolds 2001 Grange which positively lagged behind despite a respectable 26.5% increase over the same period – though only narrowly nudging out Taylor’s 2011.

The 1997 and 2000 vintages from Taylor were also present in the top 10, all showing gains in excess of 15%, while the 2007 managed to just slip over the 10% change-mark.

But while the Rest of the World 50 flourishes, the parent index, the Fine Wine 1000, declined 0.4% in February with Champagne taking the biggest hit in performance.

After performing strongly between December and January, the Champagne 50 fell away sharply in February, down 2.7%.

Burgundy struggled too however, its Burgundy 150 index declining 1.1% in February and the Bordeaux 500 0.6% after seven months of rises but with the strong performance of the 2005s holding the region up.

The Rest of the World 50 rose 1.8% in February – part of its wider 3.2% upward progress – while the Bordeaux Legends 50 “edged up” 0.54% and the Rhône 100, the weakest performing sub-index, managed to hold steady in February.