2016 ends on a high for fine wine

The Liv-ex fine wine 100 and 1000 indices ended 2016 with further positive gains and broke new records.

The Fine Wine 100 – which tracks the 100 most traded labels on the secondary market – closed December of last year up a marginal 0.4%. Having recorded a full year of gains in November, the small rise in December nonetheless pushed the index to a full calendar year and 13 consecutive months of gains.

The index is now up 24.8% year-on-year and at its highest point since November 2011.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 2012 La Tâche topped December’s risers, going up 9% in price, closely followed by the 2009 Vieux Château Certan. Also up were the 2010 Cheval Blanc, 2009 Penfolds Grange and 2009 Haut-Bailly.

The month’s worst performing labels included 2009 Petrus and Angélus, 2010 Pape Clement, 2012 Clos des Papes and Smith Haut Lafitte’s 2009 vintage which declined 7.1%.

The much broader 1000 index, meanwhile, closed out December on an all-time high of 299.80 having risen 1.1%.

Like the Fine Wine 100 it has risen for 13 months straight now and finished 2016 22.3% above where it was in December 2015.

The best-performing sub-indices over the course of 2016 were the Burgundy 150 (up 26%), Bordeaux Legends 50 (24.9%) and Bordeaux 500 (up 23.1%).

However, the Champagne 50 (-0.9%), Rest of the World 50 (-0.3%) and the Italy 100 (-0.2%) all declined slightly in December.