October brings no relief for secondary market

The leading Liv-ex fine wine indices index dipped by 1% in October in what has been a misfiring year for the fine wine secondary market.

Both the Fine Wine 100 and Fine Wine 1000 indices declined in October, by 1% and 1.2% respectively, the latter being the biggest decline the FW1000 has seen all year.

The Fine Wine 100 in particular has had a poor year. Flat from December 2018 through to the summer when it enjoyed a minor rally, it has now been in decline again since September and is currently down 1.2% on the year-to-date.

Nearly all the constituent parts of the FW1000 were in negative territory at the end of last month with the exception of the Champagne 50 which was up 1.9% and the Italy 100 was flat.

The biggest faller was the Burgundy 150 which was down 2.2%. it has been the worst performing sub-index this year, down 4.5% overall.

The introduction of tariffs in the US last month on many European wines may already be having an effect Liv-ex suggested.