Fine wine rebounds in October

After a disappointing September the fine wine market rebounded strongly in October, with the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 recording a 1% rise thanks to strong demand for Burgundy.

With the FW1000 – the broadest measure of the market – suffering its first decline in 22 months in September (a new record for unbroken monthly rises), its minor downward turn combined with an apparently flagging bid:offer ratio raised the possibility that the secondary market’s bulldozer run could finally be starting to run out of gas.

But far from slowing down the FW1000 just kicked up an extra gear and has driven on into even higher record territory.

The Burgundy 150 sub-index was the main driver of growth last month, moving up 2.5% as prices for the region’s top wines continue to rise. It is also the top performer of all the sub-indices over one year.

The Rest of the World 50 also had a good October, rising 1.6% as did the Champagne 50, likewise up 1.8%.

Those two indices are also in the top three best-performing groups over one year.

The Fine Wine 100 meanwhile, tracking the 100 most widely traded labels, had a more subdued time but still managed a modest 0.3% gain.

As with the FW1000 it was Burgundy labels that saw the biggest price changes in October, with Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 2012 La Tâche rising 14.4%, the 2012 Romanée-Conti going up 5.1% and Armand Rousseau’s 2012 Chambertin rising 4.7%.

The other best-performers were Beaucastel’s 2012 Chateauneuf du Pape (+12.4%) and 2000 Haut-Brion (+5%).

Going down meanwhile were a mixed bag including Screaming Eagle 2013, Ornellaia 2010, Lynch Bages 2009 and Clos des Papes 2012, while Montrose’s 2009 was the worst overall, seeing its price decline 6.9%.