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July fine wine prices soften but fund management firm expects a swing back in the autumn

Published:  21 August, 2015

A leading wine investment fund manager says it expects prices to rise again in the autumn after softening during the summer.

Liv-Ex figures showed a 1.8% fall in prices in July with trading activity seasonally low due to holidays, but Wine Asset Managers said it expected prices to return to the growth seen in the early part of 2015.

"The difference is that last year the opening half of the year had seen a decline of 9% and July represented the bottom, where activity was extremely low," it said in a report on the month's trading activity.

"This time round the fund entered July on the back of a 3% increase in the unit price in the first half of the year, and therefore the July softness represented more of a norm after a reasonable if not exciting first half.

"August is likely to be soft too, and we'd expect things to pick up in the autumn."

It added that 2015 was "shaping up to be a very good vintage in Bordeaux", with the opportunity to build on last year.

The report added: "The travails of Bordeaux since the long-winded release of the 2010 vintage over the summer of 2011 and the eradication of graft-related demand in China have been manifested by over-priced releases of either poor or ordinary vintages, which has irritated its traditional customer base.

"For the first growths, the 2014 vintage releases were actually greeted more favourably than any of the previous three, suggesting they were almost pricing it right.

"If the Bordelais can control themselves and release a really good vintage without whacking their prices up they may well be back in business."

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