Two Wins at the 2026 Drinks Business Awards

Named Fine Wine Retailer of the Year and Trading Platform of the Year 2026 - recognition of a market we're rebuilding around transparency, liquidity, and technology.

We're delighted to share that Bordeaux Index has been recognised at this year's Drinks Business Awards, taking home two of the night's most coveted accolades: Fine Wine Retailer of the Year and Trading Platform of the Year for LiveTrade.

The Drinks Business Awards are among the most respected in the industry, celebrating excellence and innovation across the global drinks trade. To be recognised in two categories in the same year is a real honour - and, for us, recognition of a single conviction: that fine wine deserves a market built on transparency, liquidity, and genuinely modern technology.

Fine Wine Retailer of the Year

For the sixth time, Bordeaux Index has been named Fine Wine Retailer of the Year. The judges commended the ongoing development of our LiveTrade platform, which they said had made accessing fine wine significantly more user-friendly, alongside our Bordeaux: 10 Years On tasting - praised for offering a uniquely authoritative view of the region's wines.

It's an award that speaks to something we care about deeply: bringing our clients closer to the wines they love, and making fine wine more accessible, more enjoyable, and more rewarding.

Trading Platform of the Year

LiveTrade was named Trading Platform of the Year for the seventh year in a row - a run that reflects not just consistency, but continual reinvention.

Fine wine has long been one of the least transparent markets in the world: opaque pricing, slow settlement, and liquidity locked behind relationships rather than technology. LiveTrade was built to change that. What began as a leading fine wine and whisky marketplace has grown into a fully connected trading infrastructure - and it's the technology underneath that sets it apart.

At its core is firm, two-way pricing: real, executable prices to both buy and sell, not indicative estimates. Clients can see live valuations against their portfolio, trade in a single tap, and settle quickly, with no joining fees. Professional critic scores and live market pricing sit on the same screen, so decisions are made with the full picture rather than a fragment of it. Today the platform carries over £40 million of live inventory and more than 150,000 listings - a depth of real, tradable stock that simply doesn't exist elsewhere in the category.

The most significant leap has been the LiveTrade API. By letting partners and vendors plug directly into that liquidity and pricing, we've turned a marketplace into shared infrastructure for the wider trade. The impact has been transformative: integrated vendors have seen their trading activity grow by more than 1,000%. It's the clearest sign yet of what becomes possible when fine wine is treated as a connected, data-rich market rather than a collection of closed catalogues.

What comes next

Recognition like this is a moment to pause and celebrate - and our thanks go to the clients, partners, and team who make it possible. But it's also a marker of direction. Both awards point to the same goal: a fine wine market that's more open, more liquid, and better served by technology.