- Market Turmoil continues against a backdrop of Global economic uncertainty and recession fears. Fine Wine offers stability.
- The 2022 En Primeur Campaign is seeing strong interest and significant price increases.
- Vindome experienced several areas of growth well above the
market average.
Global market turmoil continues
The unsettled nature of the first quarter of the year continued into the second with inflation, widespread industrial action, particularly in Europe, and against the backdrop of the continued war in Ukraine. Fuel price rises, however, started to abate, especially in Europe and the UK, towards the end of the second quarter.
While there were no further bank collapses, there was fear in the global markets of inflation (and, even worse, stagflation) and interest rate rises, causing significant disruption in the equities and commodities markets.
Cryptocurrencies have seen significant declines in the first half of 2023, and real estate is also showing rocky performance. All this once more highlights the advantages of having a diverse portfolio which affords a buffer against the risks.
Fine Wine continues to be a significant part of this. The beginning of the En Primeur campaign threw the spotlight onto Bordeaux, and the gains experienced by Burgundy and Champagne from last year are being eclipsed by the blue-chip red wines of Bordeaux and other classic European areas such as the Rhône, Tuscany and Piedmont.
However, Vindome’s spot offer of Château d’Yquem 2020, released at €1,770, is currently trading for €1,909, an incredible 7.9% increase, so please continue to look for our excellent deals, almost always below the market average price. As is often the case in the two months prior to an En Primeur campaign, the general Fine Wine market was quiet in April and early May, with small declines affecting the month and year to date, figures across the board.
The best-performing wines, reaching double-digit growth, were from Italy. Overall the wine market showed a small slight decline in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter.
The 2022 En Primeur Campaign
May saw the initial releases of En Primeur prices with some significant price increases, as well as an incredibly positive reception by the critics and higher scores than have been seen since 2016. The campaign saw the release of the top Châteaux towards the end of May and throughout June. Out of the initial 60 releases, the average release price of the 2022 vintage is € 71.3, compared to € 62.6 in 2021, representing an increase of 13.9 %. With first tranches selling out – especially on high profile names such as Châteaux Cheval Blanc and Carmes Haut-Brion – very quickly, there is every evidence that fine Bordeaux is providing as safe and reliable investment as ever, and especially against the general market instability.
Notable releases still available for investment from Vindome include:
Performance
We will continue to bring you the best deals and offers on the finest releases throughout the remaining campaign. A counterpoint to that is that the increased release prices are also highlighting some very attractive sales propositions for previous vintages already available as physical stock. For example, consider Vindome’s offer on 2010 Château d’Armailhac, released on 22 May 2023 at €460, now trading at €476 (3.5% growth already) and still available. Our spot offer from 30 May 2023 on 2019 Lafite Rothschild similarly remains active, and is already up 1.4% from €5,010 to €5,081.
En Primeur Bordeaux continues to offer returns on investment not seen since the 2010 releases (which took many years to show growth). En Primeur always offers a good opportunity for long-term investment, but some purchases of the 2020 vintage, for example, have already grown by up to 130%, and many have reached significant double-digit growth.
This may be a reaction to the more difficult 2021 vintage which followed it, but it is encouraging that considered En Primeur purchases are likely to provide as good a return as any other ‘passion asset’, on a parallel with cars, watches, whisky and art.
Vindome experienced several areas of growth well above the market average
Once again, we saw great performance compared to the rest of the wine market. Examples include the 2020 Margaux Collection, with growth since late April of 7.8% and some stock still available. Our 2019 2nd Label Collection, released on 13 April 2023, is now trading 12.1% higher. Astonishing growth also of 12.3% for our 2020 Cinquième Cru Collection, released on 19 April 2023. We have many wines on offer at well below the current market prices, all representing a great investment opportunity compared to the equities market, especially in light of continued high inflation.
We continue to search out the best buys for our collections and spot offers and will bring them to you regularly. We also look forward to tasting and reviewing the bottled Bordeaux 2020 vintage wines when they are released at the end of the year in November/December.
