Liv-ex has recently issued details on the price performance of fine wine brands year to date based on the trade of the component wines of the Bordeaux 500 index which measures the chateaux’s last ten physical vintages (2005 to 2014 inclusive) with the following results:
| TOP 10 BEST PERFORMING BORDEAUX WINES 2017 YTD: | |
|---|---|
| Gruaud Larose | 15% |
| Carruades Lafite | 15% |
| Vieux Chateau Certan | 14% |
| Coutet (Barsac) | 13% |
| Petit Mouton | 11% |
| Yquem | 10% |
| Pavillon Rouge | 10% |
| Calon Segur | 9% |
| Rieussec | 9% |
| Clarence Haut Brion | 9% |
Interestingly, the First Growths’ second wines have commanded market attention and enjoyed strong price growth this year so far with four of the top ten wines (Carruades Lafite, Petit Mouton, Pavillon Rouge and Clarence Haut Brion), all enjoying more than 9% growth. Latour’s Forts Latour did not make the top ten but still achieved 6.3% growth, a strong YTD performance.
The First Growths themselves are definitely back in favour but have enjoyed more sedate growth between 2% (Haut Brion, Latour and Mouton), Margaux at 3% and Lafite Rothschid at 5.7%. That said, Lafite 2014 has been the most traded wine by value on Liv-ex 2017 to date seeing 2.3% of trade. Other Lafite vintages commanding high levels of trade are the superlative 2010 and 2009 vintages, along with 2011 and 2012.
Montrose 2010 was the second most highly traded wine by value at 1.3% of Liv-ex trade, this in part due to critics’ attention and its rescore, albeit down to 99. Mouton Rothschild 2005 and Cheval Blanc 2014 were also ranked in the top ten most highly traded wines with 0.68% and 0.60% respectively, Mouton’s rescore up to 98 definitely having an effect.
Sauternes has seen a strong regional performance in 2017 with three of the top ten wines from that appellation; Coutet seeing a 13% increase, Yquem 10% and Rieussec 9% .
The lower end of the performance measurement is still, with the exception of Chateaux Climens (-6%) and Eglise Clinet (-1%), in positive territory.
Finally, as the summer break draws to a close a key trade appointment has been announced with the movement of Aymeric de Gironde, MD of St Estephe’s Cos d’Estournel to Chateau Troplong Mondot when Xavier Pariente departs in October. A Vin-X favourite, the St Emilion estate, whose close neighbours include Chateaux Pavie and Angelus, was recently sold to insurance company, Scor, for an undisclosed sum. Michel Reybier, the owner of Cos d’Estournel has stated that he will personally oversee the management of Cos going forward.