August was an active month in terms of value traded and the volume of transactions – both reached an all-time high. The historically quiet month also saw the number of unique wine labels (LWIN7s) traded surpass the previous month’s record by 15%.
Once again, Bordeaux surrendered more market share and fell to a new low (34.7%). Instead, trade centred around Italy (20.1%) and the Others category (14.5%). The latter was led by the USA (6.1%), Australia (4.0%) and Spain (1.9%). Penfolds’ newest flagship release, Grange 2016, led trade by value and Italy’s San Guido Guidalberto 2018 led by volume.
The industry benchmark, Liv-ex 100 index, was up 1.3% this month, while the Liv-ex 1000, our broader measure of the market, ran flat (-0.1%). Within the Liv-ex 1000’s sub-indices, the Bordeaux 500 increased slightly (0.1%). The Champagne 50 continued its impressive year, gaining 1.19% for the month, taking it close to 5% for the year. The Italy 100, which has been up so far this year, drifted a touch in August (-0.12%). The Burgundy 150 also fell slightly (-0.38%), bringing its year-to-date losses to -2.6%.
Buying interest from the US emerged as tariffs were left unchanged (as opposed to the market fear that they may be broadened). Conversely, Asian interest was at its lowest since the start of lockdown. (Bottled wine imports into China have dropped by more than a third during the first six months of the year).