Vinum Fine Wines results suggest better days are coming

However, while the merchant’s turnover shot up by 15% between June and July this year, Vinum’s fine wine consultant Miles Davis says “it’s too early to call it a bigger turnaround”.

Turnover at London merchant Vinum Fine Wines was up 15% in June with sales growth in Asia particularly strong.

However, the group’s fine wine consultant Miles Davis said the market was still a long way from hitting pre-Covid levels of turnover and warned that tariff troubles “overhang everything”.

“We still do plenty of business, but we have to work really, really hard for it,” he told the drinks business. 

He added: “Any sort of pickup is coming from a very low base; it’s important not to get too carried away. 

“A lot of people within the industry are being optimistic. Everyone’s looking for signals that this is going to be the beginning of a turnaround, because the market’s been pretty diabolical for the past two and a half years now.

“But I’m much more cautious than that, and while there are small indicators that things may be improving in certain areas, it’s too early to call it a bigger turnaround.”

Champagne shines

The fine wine merchant’s latest report also studied the value of fine wine regions across the past five years, including Italy, Burgundy, Champagne, Bordeaux, Rhone, California and the rest of the world.

All categories saw a value drop in June, with the exception of Champagne which climbed by 0.8%.

Over the five years from 2020 to 2025, Italy, Burgundy and Champagne all saw significant gains of 12.6%, 14.4% and 21.6% respectively, in terms of Vinum’s sales.

Davis attributed this to “the combination of desirability and limited supply”.

This was reflected in Vinum Fine Wine’s activity, with success moving new releases, particularly from Bollinger with its PN TX20, La Côte aux Enfants 2015 and Vieilles Vignes Françaises expressions performing well.

Hot off the press

Another new release, Louis Roederer Cristal Vinothèque ’04, white and rosé, proved popular, as did vintages of Salon and Krug.

Meanwhile, Vinothèque editions of Pol Roger’s Winston Churchill from ’98, ’99 and ’02, struggled.

“This all, yet again, underscores the market in which we trade; super rare, great provenance and with a big fat price tag still sells relatively easily, more ‘middle of the road’ wines less so,” explained Davis.

Speaking to db, he added: “Some of the new releases are much easier than secondary market trading because people like to get releases hot off the press.”

Trump’s tariff turmoil

Looking to the future, Davis said recovery in the wine market relies on the outcome of Europe’s tariff negotiations with America.

The US is set to hike tariff rates on EU goods to 30% from 1 August, but President Donald Trump has said the rate could increase if the European Union retaliates.

On 14 July Trump raised the stakes by threatening 50% tariffs on EU exports, but the EU hopes to negotiate the rate to 10%.

“The tariff troubles overhand everything, and they need to be moving in the right direction for the market to turn around. Once we know more about that it will produce more certainty and confidence,” said Davis.

The end of the war in Ukraine would also be a “massive confidence booster” for the global economy, the consultant added, and he believed this would have a “trickle-down” effect to the wine sector.

Related news

‘Gang des grands crus’ faces trial over €2.5m theft of 4,000 fine wine bottles

British tourist faces 50 years over brazen fine wine heist

ASC Fine Wines: events are the gateway to China's wine consumer