Small declines for fine wine in December

The main Liv-ex fine wine indices both suffered tiny declines in December but no way near enough to impact the big gains made throughout 2017.

The Fine Wine 50, 100 and 1000 indices slipped 0.1%, 0.1% and 0.96% respectively in the last month of 2017 but having built up such a head of steam during the rest of the year the dips were barely even a bump in the road leading into 2018.

The Fine Wine 100 for example has returned to a level not seen since December 2011 (when it was hurtling downwards at an alarming rate) and the Fine Wine 1000 still ended the year just over 10% up on where it began.

With regards the best and worst-performing labels tracked by the Fine Wine 100 it was all Bordeaux in December.

The Right Bank dominated those labels on the up – 2001 Ausone seeing a 6% rise in price to just over £5,000 per dozen.

Its 2011 was also up 4.7% as was Petrus’s 2011 while Angelus’s 2006 saw a 5.9% increase and Pichon Lalande’s 2000 rose 4.6%.

If Ausone had two of the best-performing wines in December, however, it also had some of the worst as well – its 2009 declining 13.4% to under £9,000 a case (from £10,000) and its 2012 dipping 4.5% to under £4,000.

Also down were Grand-Puy-Lacoste’s 1990 (-6.5%), Conseillante 2005 (-4.9%) and Léoville Las Cases 1996 (-4.1%).

Looking over at the Fine Wine 1000 and the broader market, the Burgundy 150 sub-index romped upwards to an almost 20% (19.2%) gain over the course of 2017, while the Italy 100 and Rest of the World 50 also posted strong rises of 11.9% and 12.6%.

Slightly slower progress was made by the Rhône 100 and Bordeaux Legends 50 which both went up 5.5%.