Wine Market Investment Report April 2020

2020-05-19

Miles Davis, 18th May 2020.

Activity in the wine market in April was, pretty much, a repeat of what we saw in March. Numbers of alcohol and wine sales have been higher across the board since the pandemic struck, with people apparently drinking more, just less publicly! Closer examination would suggest quantity is winning out over quality, as volumes are up but values are lower. This comes as little surprise and this trend has been replicated on the Wine Owners platform. Plenty of gluggers being bought with little activity in the investment grade.

One interesting area of note amongst London’s fine wine traders, who have generally been quieter than in more normal times, has been a few very high value trades purchased by drinkers not investors. High value cases of DRC, Le Pin and other very top end names have been changing hands in piece meal fashion. Otherwise trade stumbles along with consumers rather than investors calling the shots.

The trends that existed pre the virus seem to be continuing and there is no question Italy continues to steal the limelight away from France. There is no doubt the lack of U.S. tariffs on Italian wines will be assisting here but Italy is on fire anyway. Some superb vintages from their finest wine regions, namely Piedmont (2016) and Tuscany (2015 and 2016) are proving popular amongst wine lovers who are accustomed to paying far more for their French equivalents. These wines are coming to the market now as the Italians release their wines much later than the French. The extra ageing that occurs helps enormously as the reputation of the vintage is not speculative; the wines will have been tasted and re-tasted, so that significant element of risk is eliminated. They don’t ‘do’ en primeur like the French either, so there is far less hype and less FOMO (fear of missing out), so all in all it’s better for the purchaser (the two countries really could learn quite a lot from each other!). Chateau Angludet released their 2019 yesterday, even though only a handful of people have tasted it, as the whole Bordeaux en primeur system challenges itself yet further. June is the current plan for the pricing up of Bordeaux primeurs and unless there are substantial price reductions, we must surely be looking more at a case of double amputation rather than simply shooting one’s own foot off!

Whatever happens with Bordeaux en primeur I strongly believe Italy and the rest of the world will continue to eat into the French gateau. The fine wine market continues to broaden, there has never been so much good wine coming out of other regions and other countries, with journalist’s coverage to match, and with points awarded to even outstrip that! The economic effects of Covid-19 are going to be felt far and wide and the quest for relative vinous value will be evermore sought after.

miles.davis@wineowners.com