Article 50 has finally been triggered and our new semi-detached reality will soon be upon us, for good or otherwise. However for the wine industry, the game changed as soon as the referendum result was in and the GBP weakness has continued to make fine wine game one of two parts: restocking from Europe is challenging but trade in Asia is booming. This was the story of H2 2016 and it has continued to be the case in Q1 2017, and after a small Chinese New Year hangover, the BI LiveTrade Index is back on the move in the right direction. We will have a full report on the first three months of the year in the next week or so, but for now here are a few interesting highlights:
· Sales through our LiveTrade platform are up 50% year on year – in part as a result of our adding more wines to the screen, but even like-for-like trades are considerably up.
· The best-selling vintage is 2006 – driven by LiveTrade Champagnes (2006 Dom Perignon and 2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne) which has also had a major effect on the 2002 vintage – another fizz favourite
· In Bordeaux the top sellers have been the deadly duo of 2009 and 2010, along with 2005 and 1996 (driven primarily by a surge of interest in the ‘new’ 100-point 1996 Margaux)
· Lafite remains streets ahead as the top-selling producer by value, and only a cigarette paper could fit between Mouton, Latour and Margaux in 2nd-4th place. After a long period in the sun (partially as a result of our trading away much of the best stock!) Haut Brion drops into fifth.
Much more to come from our Investment Team in due course.
LiveTrade Changes
LiveTrade isn’t called ‘Live’ simply because it is the only place in the market that gives you a live dealing price (whether you are buying or selling) for 400 top wines – it’s also because we’re constantly playing with it, looking to make it as easy to use as possible. We’re in the process of adding multiple new features that will make your fine wine trading life easier, more enjoyable, more transparent and – hopefully – more profitable; but we’ve started by making a few on-screen changes which have been designed to make the process a little more user-friendly. Not to mention we have made multiple bug-fixes which should make the whole process far smoother. Follow the link to take a glance...
Bid/Offer – You Sell/You Buy
In order to make it absolutely clear what your options are, we’ve adjusted the way our prices are expressed: thus ‘Bid’ becomes ‘You Sell’ (this is the price we will give you for your wine if you want to deal - the exact price, with no fees or commissions deducted) and ‘Offer’ becomes ‘You Buy’ – again, this is the price you will pay, with no hidden charges (aside from the standard Duty and VAT if you are choosing to have the wine delivered).
Likewise if you want to deal within the spread, simply click on the LT-marked wine and you can ‘Offer to Sell’ or ‘Bid to Buy’ within the price band offered. Once you have made your bid or offer, you will be contacted rapidly by a member of the LiveTrade team either confirming the trade or making a counter-offer.
Trading stock not stored with BI
This is important: you can trade on LiveTrade regardless of where you store your wine. This isn’t technically a change, but something which we found many people weren’t aware of. While of course we love our clients to store their wines with us (and believe us, there are multiple benefits to doing so), we recognise that some of you have long-standing relationships to store elsewhere. However, this DOES NOT prevent you from trading on LiveTrade! There are just a few points to remember when selling stock from outside our warehouse – just click here to view the LiveTrade page and find out more.
Happy trading!