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The total value of trading in fine wine fell by 30.2 percent in April compared to March, according to calculations by the fine wine trading platform Liv-ex. Liv-ex has over 600 fine wine merchants as members worldwide and calculates the indices of the most frequently traded wines on the secondary market. Accordingly, transactions, traded volumes, and average transaction values have significantly decreased. Analysts cite the conflict over US tariffs, the Easter holidays, and the en primeur tastings in Bordeaux as reasons.
Purchases from the USA fell by 34.8 percent compared to March and even by 58 percent compared to February. Consequently, their share of the total value of the secondary market is now only 19.9 percent. In Europe, the purchasing value fell by 26.8 percent, while purchases from the UK decreased by 39.1 percent. Due to the weakness of the US market, the European share of trade rose to 38.9 percent. Asia was the least affected, with a decrease of 13.6 percent. Despite the decline, the Asian purchasing value in April was 24.7 percent above the monthly average for the year 2024. As one analyst notes, Asian buyers seem to be returning with a stronger focus on Burgundy rather than Bordeaux.
The expanded market, represented by the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 Index, fell by 1.3 percent in April. The Fine Wine 100 recorded its strongest monthly decline since August 2023, with a decrease of 1.7 percent. The Fine Wine 50 Index, which includes the ten most recent vintages of Bordeaux Premier Crus, fell by 1.9 percent. The Bordeaux 500 Index lost only 1.6 percent. The Champagne 50 index performed the worst among the sub-indices, with a decrease of 2.6 percent. Here, the reluctance of American buyers has become particularly noticeable. They accounted for nearly 48 percent of champagne trading in the past twelve months.
The withdrawal of US buyers caused the bid-to-offer ratio in the Liv-ex 1000 Index to drop to 0.31 in April – the lowest value since the spring of 2020, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of bids from the USA is at least 50 percent below the level before the introduction of tariffs for all regions. Particularly few bids were made for wines from Piedmont. At the same time, the share of Bordeaux in the total value of US purchases rose to 43.3 percent – significantly above the previous average.
Looking ahead, Liv-ex writes that US buyers are likely to continue to hold back until further decisions on tariffs are made on July 9. An analyst is quoted as saying: "Private collectors have incurred losses with their purchases in recent years, and they are unlikely to be swayed back to buying solely through marketing emails. To establish a new equilibrium – one where part of the tariff costs is distributed among trading partners – market participants must first have a clear understanding of the actual costs."
(al / Source: Liv-ex)
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