Salon falls out of the Power 100

The world’s most expensive Champagne brand, Salon, has dropped out of the Liv-ex Power 100 amid a “correction” of both the Champagne and the wider fine market. 

According to the latest report – which will be published in full in the Drinks Business December issue – the Champagne category has gained market share but it has also lost one of its most well-known names. Champagne Salon dropped out of the Power 100 as the market shifts from soaring prices in 2022 to a broader volume market. According to Liv-ex the comparatively limited amount of trade seen by Salon was largely responsible for the move, after the brand suffered from a negative price performance, down 5.7%. Prices have started to fall back after soaring in 2022, and reaching its highest point in the summer, before starting to fall.

“For the wines that reach such heady heights (for example Champagne’s Salon) … the fall is often a painful one,” the report noted.

The Champagne market has remained “very active” however, even though the Champagne 50 index is down 19.4% in the year-to-date.  It comes a year after Champagne was heralded in the Power 100 2022 as “a growing force in the secondary market that has truly begun to break out”.

Speaking to The Drinks Business earlier this month (a few weeks before the report was published) Liv-ex’s territory manager for the Americas, Robbie Stevens said that while Champagne was still transacting during September and into October, it was doing so at a lower level than had been seen before, indicating a stabilisation of pricing.  He pointed to the Dom Perignon 2013, which had come down by around 10-15% from where it was earlier in the year, he said, “there was far more stability in that pricing” now.

Champagne is the third most traded region, after Bordeaux and Burgundy, making up around 14.4% of the regional trade share in 2022-23,  up from 12.2% the previous year.

Overall, this year’s Power List reflects”a flight to quality” with buyers “searching for safe bets amid tough trading conditions” amid a market “knee-deep in a price correction”. Simultaneously some of the major brands across the list took a hit, favouring wines that have a high number of labels traded, especially those of drinking age, as there was a discernible bias towards brands with a high number of traded labels and higher liquidity.

Commenting on the report, Justin Gibbs, Liv-ex’s deputy chairman and exchange director said that the weak market made the new rankings “particularly interesting” with buyers seeking stable and liquid brands that offered relative value.

“The brands that drove the market to its peak of October 2022 are now feeling the correction the hardest,” he noted. “Buyers have sharpened their focus to reflect greater risk aversion.”

The Power 100 will be published in full in the December issue of The Drinks Business