In the first of a series of short blogs we examine the fine wine trends of the first half of 2020.
It has been quite a turbulent first six months of the year which included a narrow escape from additional US tariffs, the launch of Bordeaux 2019 amid a global pandemic and extreme financial market turbulence. However, our members, categorised into four groups based on region – Asia, Europe, UK and the USA – continued their search for wines across an increasingly diverse range (discussed further in a subsequent blog).
When looking into the search preferences of these groups, some interesting differences but also a few constants become evident. The tables below – LWIN7 (wine name) & LWIN11 (wine and vintage)* – are based on specific merchant searches from January 1st to the end of June.
As the table above shows, Chateau Lafite Rothschild followed by Chateau Mouton Rothschild lead in two regions – Asia & UK – but also rank in every region’s top ten.
Petrus tops searches for Europe and Coche Dury leads for the USA. With a heavy preference for French wines in the top ten, Sassicaia was able to find a spot in three of the four regions, with Screaming Eagle also making it into the Old World dominated lists.
2016 was the most searched for vintage, appearing in seven out of the 40 available spots and 2017 was the second, appearing six times.
In 2019, only one non-French wine made the top ten by LWIN11. This year, there were three, with Tignanello 2016 the most searched for wine from the USA. US merchants also had their eyes firmly fixed on Coche Dury, Meursault Perrieres, appearing in two out of the top ten spots.
Dom Perignon 2008 has now spent its second year at the top for the UK.
Lafite Rothschild leads for both Europe and Asia, although in the former the 2017 vintage edged out the 2016.