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Liv-ex: flight to quality continues as Californian fine wine show buoyancy

04 December 2023 By Arabella Mileham

California has helped keep the figures on the Liv-ex 1000 more buoyant, amid a fine wine market where prices continue to correct, Liv-ex has said.

Screaming Eagle has exemplified the flight to quality (Photo: db)

After a brief pause in September, the fine wine market continued to decline in October, with the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 (the broadest reflection of the market) dropping 1.4% in October, an acceleration of the 1.0% fall the previous month.

However, within the sub-indices that make up the Liv-ex 1000, there were some areas of buoyancy. For example, in September, two of Liv-ex’s sub-indices of the Liv-ex 1000 rose, the Italy 100 up by 0.6% and the Rest of the World 60 rising by 0.2%. The latter – an index containing ten of the most recent physical vintages of Vega Sicilia Unico, Seña, Screaming Eagle, Opus One, Dominus and Penfolds Grange – continued to see rises during October, rising a further 0.2%, Liv-ex confirmed.

This movement was largely buoyed by Californian wines, it noted, with 53% of the Californian wines within the Rest of the World 60 index recording a positive movement during October. Indeed, the top three performers wines within the index all came from the region: Screaming Eagle 2015 rose by 11.1%, Screaming Eagle 2012 by 11.0% and Dominus 2011 by 11.1%.

However, before we get too carried away, the fine wine platform pointed out that these three wines have seen “significant” year-to-date declines in their performance and while October saw a decrease in the volume of Californian wines traded compared to September, their trade value was the highest since March this year, pointing to a flight to quality in region – something that has almost become a mantra in the economic uncertainty.

It pointed to Screaming Eagle as a good example of this trend, with the high-scoring 2015 and 2012 vintages, which both scored 100 points from The Wine Advocate, recording double-digit increases last month, while the lower-scoring 2017 and 2011 vintages of the same wine, saw their mid-prices decline by 8.1% and 6.2% respectively.