First growths dominate April trading

Helped by first growth trade, the Fine Wine 100 index gained a further 1% in April, the fifth consecutive monthly rise.

In March the index of the 100 most traded fine wines in the secondary market rose 2.7% – the biggest monthly gain seen since 2013.

That momentum hasn’t been sustained to quite the same extent over April but a 1% is still encouraging.

As Liv-ex explained, the slight rally in sterling recently contributed to this lower gain and with the Bordeaux 2015 en primeur campaign now getting started the question will be whether this impetus can continue into a sixth straight month.

Having earlier reported that the first growth index, the Fine Wine 50, has maintained its gains since January, April proved no exception and that tracker witnessed a 1.1% upward tick last month.

Although Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 2010 Romanée-Conti was the month’s biggest climber – up 13.7% to a mid-price of £104,824 per dozen – it was the first growths which dominated.

Mouton Rothschild’s 2010 went up 4.7%, while it and Lafite’s 2005 vintages rose 4.8% and 3.9% respectively while Latour’s 2006 was up 7.5%.

On the other hand, the firsts also dominated the month’s sliders. Latour’s 2010 went down 1%, the 2009 Lafite 1.3%, likewise the formerly high-flying 2000 Mouton and Margaux’s 2009 drifted 2.3%.

The month’s worst performer though was Cheval Blanc’s 2010, down 3.7%.