The Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 closed February at 361.45, up 0.62% in what was the most active February trading period yet seen on Liv-ex.

The index is up 5.2% year on year. February marked its sixth consecutive month of gains.

In a sign of how the market has bounced back over the past year, trade by value was almost double that of February 2020 – a time when Covid-19 was spreading exponentially, and global financial markets had begun to swing wildly.

The underlying market trends followed on from those seen in January, driven by a continued broadening. The number of LWIN7s and LWIN11s traded were 1,149 and 2,035 respectively, a substantial increase on last February when the number of LWIN7s traded was 786 and LWIN11s 1,357.

Looking at the performance of the constituent sub-indices, it was another good month for Burgundy, with the Burgundy 150 sub-index taking the lead for the second month in a row.

It gained 1.5% with wines from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Armand Rousseau, leading the way.

The Burgundy 150’s progress was closely followed by the Champagne 50 which rose 1.4%. The Champagne 50’s February close marked its best one year run since September 2018 – an increase of over 10%.

All of the other sub-indices rose, with the exception of the Italy 100 which drifted again, down 0.67% – though its performance over the course of a year remains positive.