Fine wine up 3.8% in January

Published: 04 February, 2011

Fine wine started the year strongly, with January prices returning 3.8% growth, but a late rally at the end of the month meant the Dow Jones skipped it into first place with 4% growth.

Fine wine started the year strongly, with January prices returning 3.8% growth, but a late rally at the end of the month meant the Dow Jones skipped it into first place with 4% growth.

January's star wines all came from Mouton, Margaux and Haut Brion with the best-performing vintages returning double-digit returns, said Bordeaux Index.

Other asset classes had a mixed month ? gold sunk over 6%, while high inflation and recessionary fears saw the FTSE100 close just 0.6% up on the month. Instabilities in the Middle East and a weaker US dollar saw oil spring up 3.4% in January.

"Considering that most of the Chinese New Year spending on wine was front-ended into the last two months, this near 4% gain again highlights the underlying strength of the market. Looking forward, we're expecting February to be another good month for sales across Asia as stocks are replenished post Chinese New Year," said Bordeaux Index founder and managing director Gary Boom.

"Looking a little closer at the winners and losers, it's interesting that the diversification away from Lafite in the emerging markets is better established than previously suspected. Although prices and demand remain strong, the real action is now clearly with Margaux and Mouton, both of which were up over 100% in terms of unit sales on the previous year."

"While Haut Brion was only slightly behind, Latour continues to languish in the second division. While overall numbers were strongly up, this is increasingly driven not by Asia but by UK and European markets."

Of the second tier of Bordeaux wine - known as 'Super Seconds' - sales to Asia were up 35% year on year.

"Of particular note were the performances of Montrose and Pichon Baron which both enjoyed spectacular surges in January," said Boom. "While the demand for these wines is still skewed towards the UK, the attractive price and quality suggests the greater proportion are ending up in cellars to be drunk rather than investment portfolios - a development that could be positive for the year ahead."