Fine wine bounces back – a little

After a record 17 month-long streak of consecutive gains, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 dipped in April but has bounced back in May, a little bit.

May’s trading led to a 0.4% rise on the benchmark index*, which effectively eradicates the 0.5% decline that happened in April but is still tantalisingly just out of reach of its March high.

Importantly, the market stayed steady despite the less than fizzing en primeur campaign. It has been noted recently that en primeur has less of an effect on the market than it used to. Previously a poor campaign was enough to derail positive progress but with en primeur less central to proceedings now and the fine wine market more stable due to its broader scope it gets less jittery when the latest release from Bordeaux go a bit awry.

That said, three of the top five best-performing labels last month were claret. Léoville Las Cases’ 2010 rose 9.4% to a mid price of £1,800 a case, closely followed by La Mission Haut-Brion’s 2012, up 9.1%.

Screaming Eagle’s 2012 went up 5.5%, Margaux’s 2009 4.9% and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 2011 La Tâche rose 3.9%.

Going down by contrast were a couple of clarets, another of Margaux’s wines, the 2000, which experienced a 3.2% dip and Petrus’ 2009 was down 3.3%.

Otherwise, Ornellaia 2009 declined 3.7%, Dom Pérignon’s 2002 wobbled by 5.1% and Paul Jaboulet Aîné’s 2012 Hermitage La Chapelle was the month’s biggest loser, down 6.2%.

Overall, however, said Liv-ex, “a steady month”.

*Which tracks the 100 most widely traded fine wine labels.