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Champagne provides some fizz amid February fine wine market declines

19 March 2024 By Arabella Mileham

Champagne saw a small bounce during February, according to the latest data from Liv-ex, its first upward movement since October 2022 and a bright spot amid wider declines of the fine wine market.

Justin Gibbs, Liv-ex deputy chairman and exchange director called it “cheery news in what is otherwise, a broadly negative picture” – although he said only time would tell if it pointed to “a turn in the Champagne market” or if it would prove to be “merely dead cat bounce”.

Champagne provided by far the brightest spot in the wider market, bucking the overall downward trend of Liv-ex’s indices with its first rise since the market peaked in October 2022. Since that time, the Champagne 50 index has pulled back 22.9%.

Top of the index in February was Salon, Le Mesnil Grand Cru, 2012 and Dom Perignon, Rose, 2009 which rose 19.9% and 11.4% rises respectively. However, overall, the top traded wine by value was grower champagne Jacques Selosse, Millesime 2008 – with its mid-February price for a 12-bottle case up from £26,320 to £28,000, while Dom Perignon 2013 was the top wine traded in volume terms, with a 24% volume share.

Outside Champagne, however, February saw another month of decline for the fine market – the benchmark Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 index fell for the eleventh consecutive month, down 1.1% in February, which was a steeper decline than January’s 0.3%.

Across the broader market, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 closed at 400.22, its lowest seen October 2021, and a 1.3% decline, although the Rest of the World 60 saw the most significant decline, of 2.7%, Liv-ex noted, despite some of the top US wines seeing an uptick.

However, there were also promising signs in Italy,w ith three Super Tuscans among the top performers of in the Liv-ex 100 index (Masseto, Toscana 2019, Sassicaia, Tenuta San Guido, Bolgheri 2020, and Tignanello, Toscana 2020) , while the Italy 100 also rose “a fraction”, led by the Fontodi, Flaccianello delle Pieve, Colli della Toscana Centrale and Gaja, Barbaresco, 2010.