Bordeaux’s secondary market share dips further

Bordeaux’s share of the secondary market has dipped again in 2016 say Liv-ex while Burgundy is making great gains.

Having peaked in 2010 with 95.8% of secondary market trade by value, Bordeaux’s near absolute control slackened considerably through to 2015 to a more manageable 74.7% – more or less the level Bordeaux commanded before the Asian-driven bull market took off.

Liv-ex reports that in 2016 the regions share of trade declined slightly yet again, down to 73.7%.

So far this year, meanwhile, relative activity for Bordeaux is 67.2% by value and in January of this year its monthly share of trade was just 61.6%, its lowest monthly level in eight years.

This is not a disaster, however. Bordeaux’s lower share of trade means buyers are spreading their purchases across more fine wine labels from other regions – Burgundy, Champagne, Italy and the US for example.

By not concentrating trade in just one region the market helps protect itself from future ‘bubbles’, such as that which affected Lafite and helped bring on the crash.

Of those other regions seeing an uptick in trade, Liv-ex says Burgundy has made the greatest gains so far this year. Its trade is up from 7.9% to 13.8% and is “comfortably” back in second place having dropped behind Italy back in 2015.

Italy’s share of trade is stable at 6.3%, Champagne (5.9%) and the ‘Rest of the World’ (4.9%) have both increased very slightly this year.

Interestingly, the Rhône, which has had quite a lot of positive news surrounding it of late, has seen its share of trade drop very slightly from 2% in the first half of 2016 to 1.9% in the first six months of 2017.