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News
Italian fine wines at ‘historic levels of growth’
Liv-ex has reported that secondary market trade in Italian wines has hit “historic” levels in both volume and value this year, with trade this year surpassing that of the whole of 2019.
Yesterday morning (25 August) Liv-ex said that the value of Italian wines traded so far this year surpassed that of 2019 and volume would soon follow.
Italian wines have been on the rise for some time, at the forefront of an increasingly broad market for collectable fine wines.
Liv-ex reported last year that the number of unique Italian wines traded on its platform had risen 1,500% over the last decade.
In that time the trade value of Italian wines in the secondary market has grown at a compound annual rate of 9%.
And the numbers keep rising. From January to July this year the number of Italian wines with LWIN11 identifiers increased 153.6% and Italian wines’ trade value was up 70% in the first seven months of 2020 too.
Leading the way has been demand for Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti Classico, their growth (from small bases) all up over 300% so far this year.
Furthermore, for the first time Barolo and Barbaresco’s combined trade value has seen them outpace the Super Tuscans which have dominated Italian trade so far.
Bolgheri and Toscana – the home of the Super Tuscans – have not been completely left behind. After several years of sustained growth their progress is just no longer quite as explosive. The Italy 100 index for example is up 2.3% on the year-to-date and 4.2% one a one-year period, the second-best performing index over both periods that Liv-ex has.
Within that the Super Tuscans have seen growth of 4.2% year-to-date and 8.8% over one year.
As Liv-ex noted, an immunity to the recently imposed US tariffs, excellent value versus the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy and a string of excellent recent vintages in 2015, 2016 and 2017 have all boosted Italian wine enormously and, “with few signs of headwinds ahead for Italy the country seems certain to remain in focus as the year rolls on.”