Léoville Barton trading at new highs

Four vintages of Léoville Barton have hit new all-time highs on the Liv-ex Exchange over the last month. Is it a label on the move?

The 2001 and 2010 vintages hit their highs last week, while the 2005 and 2009 vintages were trading at their new levels towards the beginning of the month.

As reported by Liv-ex, the 2010 – described by Robert Parker in 2013 as one of the estate’s “all-time great classics” – had the highest price of £1,052 per dozen.

Over the past two years the Léoville Barton index has “narrowly” outperformed the broader Bordeaux 500, up 19% since August 2016 to the latter’s 16%.

A brand on the move perhaps, suggested Liv-ex.

Meanwhile, Bordeaux’s wider share of trade on the Exchange bounced back last week. Having sunk to just over 50% of trade by value in early September, activity spiked again to 66% – helped along by interest in the first growths in particular.

Among the most active wines last week were Latour’s 1996 and Margaux’s 2007 which traded at £6,457 and £3,680 a case respectively.

2015 Le Pin, 2014 Clos du Marquis and 2013 Carruades de Lafite were also among the top 5 wines traded by value.

And away from Bordeaux the Rhône saw a big bounce as well last week, its share of trade rising from 3.4% to 8.7%.