What fine wines trade at the weekend?

With the rise of automated trading, Liv-ex has noted an increase in activity on its platform over the weekend but what are buyers after?

Weekend trading. Source: Liv-ex

Liv-ex noted recently that over the last three months there have been, “on average 170 trades each weekend,” a 42% increase from the first three months of the year.

Liv-ex put this down to the fact that its automated trading service means that there are much higher chances for live offers to find a match now should a potential buyer log on over the weekend.

As the chart shows, there has been a fairly active market for all manner of wines over the weekend since January of this year.

August remains the best month for weekend trade so far but October is only a shade behind and, as Liv-ex said, “there is still Halloween weekend left”.

Interestingly October appears the most balanced trading month so far in terms of the split between regions.

Italy has been a fairly strong presence since March and Champagne likewise, while the Rhône has been fairly active since July.

Burgundy’s share by value on the other hand seems to have diminished since January and Bordeaux is also not as active now as it was in July.

If these two staple regions are losing a bit of ground overall, in terms of weekend trading, conversely on an individual level a good number of the top wines traded by value are from Bordeaux in particular.

Among the best-performing labels traded by value at the weekend this year have been Georges Roumier’s 2005 Bonnes Mares, the 2016 Mouton Rothschild, Petrus and Haut-Brion Blanc, 2015 Ausone and 2001 Le Pin.

Meanwhile, there’s also been trade for the 1996 Dom Pérignon, Louis Roederer’s 2008 Cristal, the 2016 Tua Rita ‘Redigaffi’ and 2013 Barolo Riserva Monfortino from Giacomo Conterno.