More slides for fine wine in May

The Liv-ex indices continued their decline throughout May with first growth prices continuing to sink and non-Bordeaux fine wines strengthening their position in the market.

The news from the latest Cellar Watch Report largely echoed the news from April and follows on from what has now been months of declines.

The Fine Wine 50 (which follows the first growths) dropped 2.1% during May and was the main reason the market dipped overall.

The Fine Wine 100 dropped 1.4% as did the Bordeaux 500 but, a testament to the strength of non-Bordeaux wines, the Fine Wine 1000 dipped just 0.7% and three of its sub-indices actually went up – the “Rest of the World” index rising 0.7%.

Italian wines, in particular the Super Tuscan “stalwarts” Sassicaia and Solaia, performed better taking some 5% of trade during May its highest share in four months.

Bordeaux trade by contrast was steady nonetheless and took 81% of trade and Burgundy recovered from a slight wobble last month and climbed to 4.6%.

Part of the problem for fine wine in May was the fallout from yet another poor en primeur campaign.

Trade in Bordeaux is often given a fillip in May with some trade from the en primeurs but no 2013s traded at all in May and only four have been picked up on the secondary market.

On the other hand, the in-bottle scores from Robert Parker did give a boost to certain 2011s, as previously reported by the drinks business, and the vintage accounted for 14.4% of Bordeaux’s turnover in May while the 2009 and 2010 managed to garner a quarter of trade between them for the month their drastic price declines having once again made them attractive propositions for buyers.