Bordeaux Edges Higher on Liv-ex Over Past Month While Rhone Lags

(Bloomberg) -- The Liv-ex Bordeaux 500 Index, a broad measure of top wine estates and labels from across the region, rose 0.9 percent in July, extending a recovery dating back to November 2015, according to data from the London-based online wine market.

Older vintages of the most expensive wines, measured by the Liv-ex Bordeaux Legends 50 Index, outperformed the market, climbing 2 percent, while wines from Italy and Champagne showed gains of 1.5 percent and 1 percent, respectively, and Burgundy rose 0.4 percent, according to Liv-ex. The Rhone slipped 0.5 percent, while the rest of the world was unchanged.

The benchmark Liv-ex Fine Wine 100, which contains a cross-section of the most-traded top vintages from Bordeaux as well as some others from Burgundy, the Rhone, Champagne and Italy, was essentially flat during July, edging up just 0.04 percent, according to Liv-ex. However that was enough to push it up to its highest level since October 2011, an indication of the resilience of the wine market recovery from the lows of 2014.

Focusing on trading over the past week, Liv-ex cited demand for both Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2011 at 3,508 pounds ($4,572) per 12-bottle case and the 2013 vintage of Chateau Clerc Milon, a neighboring estate under the same ownership as Mouton, at 542 pounds a case. Clerc Milon is part of the stable of wines owned by Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA.

“It might seem unusual for an off-vintage fifth-growth to trade this heavily, yet in recent years Mouton's ownership of Clerc Milon has led to the wine becoming a popular brand in China, which has led to increased trade on Liv-ex,” it said in its Insights report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Guy Collins in London at guycollins@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Amott at jamott@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann