Strong start to January for fine wine

Fine wine’s strong start to the year has been confirmed after the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 index rose over 1% in January.

The first week of the year saw strong performances for Bordeaux and that vintage maintained its momentum throughout the month. The top five of the best-performing wines in January were all Left Bank claret.

The month’s best-performer was one of the cheapest 100-point Bordeaux wines in the secondary market – Pape Clement 2010. It rose in price 8.1% to £1,297 a case.

Palmer’s 2005 rose 7.2% to just over £2,000 a case, Mouton Rothschild’s much-admired 2000 vintage (with the black and gold ‘Augsburg’ packaging) went up 6% to £12,400 a case, while Haut-Brion’s 2006 and 2012 vintages rose 5.8% and 5.7% to £2,550 and £2,642 a case respectively.

A couple of Bordeaux labels were also among the worst performers – 2000 Montrose and 2003 Margaux which declined 2.8% and 3.7% – but the very worst performers in January were prestige Champagnes.

Taittinger’s 2004 Comtes de Champagne slipped 6%, down to £630 a case while the 2002 and 2004 vintages of Dom Pérignon both declined, 4.3% and 6.4% respectively so that both are now below £1,000 a case.

Positive as the news is, Liv-ex noted too that: “The Liv-ex 100 has a history of moving up in the first quarter only to end the year down, as was the case in 2011, 2012 and 2013. 2014 saw a reversal of this pattern while 2015 looked altogether more confused. It is therefore too early to call whether this positive movement will be sustained.”