Small rises for fine wine in April

Liv-ex’s fine wine indices saw small rises in April with Bordeaux seeing very small gains off-set, for once, by a slight lag in the performance of other regions.

The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 and Fine Wine 1000 both crept up last month, 0.4% and 0.1% respectively, and with the Fine Wine 50 also going up, all of the major indices saw growth in April.

Even though the response so far to Bordeaux 2014 has been quiet, the attention put back on Bordeaux by the annual campaign was clearly reflected in the figures and the sign of graphs inching upwards “appears to suggest that positive sentiment in the physical market is holding,” Liv-ex commented.

The Bordeaux Legends 50 was the best-performing sub-index on the Fine Wine 1000, closely followed by the Bordeaux 500.

By contrast the other sub-indices – Burgundy 150, Champagne 50, Rhône 100, Italy 100 and Rest of the World 50 – all slipped, the Champagne 50 by 0.91% and the previously high-flying RoW 50 by almost a full 1%.

The Fine Wine 100 saw the 2005 and 2009 vintages of Pavie, Palmer and Léoville Poyferré dominate the biggest risers, just behind Ponsot’s 2011 Clos Roche Vieilles Vignes.

The only Bordeaux to see a major fall in April was Pichon Baron 2010 (down 4.4%) and the month’s major fallers were 2004 Dom Pérignon, 2009 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche, 2010 Masseto and 2009 Ornellaia which was down nearly 10% in total.

Liv-ex also noted that with Robert Parker’s 10-year retrospective of the 2005s due at the end of June, “the vintage continues to be of strong interest.”