Liv-ex 100 finishes 2019 down 3%

The main Liv-ex index, the Fine Wine 100, finished 2019 down 3% overall with the market trending downwards slightly in December.

Despite a small rally last summer, the secondary market spent the majority of last year in decline of some sort, exacerbated in the second half by Brexit and a stronger pound as a result of the Conservative majority at the last election, economic downturn in Hong Kong and the US’s various trade spats with China and latterly the EU – as laid out previously by the drinks business.

In December it was down 0.61%, in line with the much broader Fine Wine 1000 which likewise dipped slightly in December, down 0.65%.

Overall the Fine Wine 1000 ended the year down 4% for exactly the same reasons outlined above.

Champagne and Italy were initially excluded from the US tariffs on European wines and this gave them a boost in November but in December the blanket 100% tariff on all EU wines quickly stripped that advantage away.

No doubt part of the course of the fine wine market at the outset of 2020 will be decided by the success – or otherwise – of lobbying to exclude wine from these extra taxes.

READ MORE: Fine wine predictions for 2020