The Liv-ex classification 2023 confirms the dominance of France and Burgundy as the most expensive wines in the world on the secondary market: only ten of the 50 most expensive wines do not come from France, and only one non-French wine was able to establish itself in the top ten.
The globally active fine wine trading platform Liv-ex (London International Vintners Exchange) has published its classification of the most expensive wines traded. It is based on the data of 620 traders. The Liv-ex classification is published every two years. It creates a hierarchy of the leading wines on the secondary market based on prices. For this, a certain minimum number of transactions must come about. This means that a vintage of a very rare brand that has only been traded once at a very high price is not enough to be included in the classification.
In addition to the criteria already in force:
only the last ten physical vintages were taken into account for this year's classification in order to exclude wines that are too exotic. Therefore, the number of qualified wines this year was 296 wines instead of 349 wines in the 2021 classification.
France continues to dominate
The absolute dominance of France in the fine wine market continues. Only ten of the 50 most expensive wines do not come from France, and only one non-French wine was able to establish itself in the top ten: The Cabernet Sauvignon from Screaming Eagle in California. The first three places are occupied by the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, followed in fifth place by Petrus, the first Bordeaux, in eighth place by Screaming Eagle, and in tenth place by Jacques Selosse Millésime, the first Champagne.
The most expensive wine is the Romanée-Conti Grand Cru with an average price of 274,000 euros per case of 12. A case of the second-placed La Táche Grand Cru from the same winery costs 77,000 euros, of the Richebourg Grand Cru 60,000 euros. Around 38,000 euros were paid for a case of Screaming Eagle. In total, 195 of the 296 classified wines come from France (87 from Bordeaux and 61 from Burgundy), 65 from Italy (38 from Tuscany and 25 from Piedmont) and 11 from the USA - all from California.
New in the classification are Argentina as a re-entrant with five wines and Switzerland with Gantenbein's Pinot Noir, which ousted the only German representative, Egon Müller's Scharzhofberger Riesling Spätlese, from the ranking.
Peak exceeded?
The most new entries in the list come from Burgundy, namely 26. However, the total number is almost the same as in 2021, as some wines have dropped out of the classification. The situation is similar in Bordeaux: in 2023, the region accounts for around 30 percent of all wines, the same as in 2021. Champagne has a share of 7.4 percent in the list.
Burgundy prices fell by 9.4 per cent year-on-year - the biggest drop since Liv-ex's Burgundy 150 Index has been in existence, but not enough to displace these wines from their position as the most expensive in the world - "yet", the report notes.
Similar to Burgundy, Champagne prices jumped in the summer of 2022 and then fell again by 8.3 per cent year-on-year. Nevertheless, the average retail price for Champagne in the 2023 classification is significantly higher than in 2021.
Liv-ex also sees higher prices for Burgundy and Champagne in the near future, but does not make any predictions as to whether the downturn in the market in 2023 is only a temporary correction or a long-term trend reversal.
(al / source: Liv-ex)
"Bordeaux 2022 is 36 per cent above fair value" - Interview: Robbie Stevens, senior broker at Liv-Ex
The ten most expensive Rieslings in the world come from Germany