Bordeaux trade suffering mid-June

Bordeaux’s share of trade on Liv-ex in the middle of June is at a new low for 2015 but is it a blip or the result of a so-so en primeur campaign?

The region’s share of trade on the Liv-ex marketplace between 5 and 11 June was just 58.1%, down from 66% the week before. In May Bordeaux scooped 74.7% of trade.

The biggest share of trade outside of Bordeaux so far this month is in Champagne and Italy, which claimed 14.8% and 10% of the trade during the period in question.

Salon’s 2002 vintage snagged 6.3% of trade by value, going for £2,576 per case at the last trade, while Cristal’s 2006 vintage took a 4.1% share.

The 2009 from Sassicaia last traded for £1,000 a case and represented 4.4% of trade by value last week, while 2012 Lafite – the cheapest physical vintage on the market – stole 4.9% of trade and is still trading for just over £3,000 p/cs.

When it came to trade by volume, Sassicaia and Cristal took 5.1% and 5% respectively, the 2008 Conterno Fantino, Barolo Vigna Gris (at £177 p/cs) 3.4%, Salon 2002 2.9% and the 2012 Clerc Milon (at £297 p/cs) a further 2.4% – good to see some 2012s trading well though unsurprising given the recent in-bottle scores from Robert Parker.

Liv-ex reported that Bollinger RD 2002 also helped boost Champagne’s share of trade, though whether any of the recently released 2008s had had an impact was not mentioned.

Liv-ex finished by saying that it wasn’t “all bad news for Bordeaux”, the Liv-ex 50 (tracking the first growths) is apparently showing the first one-year gain since October 2013 – up 0.6% – and volatility on the index has been “remarkably steady”  so far this year, with volatility of just 2%.