LIV-EX - MARKET UPDATE

Bordeaux 2012 boosts Left Bank 200 Index

Yesterday, Liv-ex identified that price increases for more accessibly priced wines have been boosting the Bordeaux 500 Index. The Second Wines 50 has been best performing sub-index, with the Left Bank 200 coming second.

The Left Bank 200 Index is composed of 10 vintages of 20 Left Bank wines – 200 in total. The chart below breaks down their overall performances by vintage over the past year.

The 2012s have seen significant gains since becoming physical last year, up 8.3%. 2008 (+6.8%) and 2006 (+6.2%) have also performed well.

It is interesting to note that when ranked by average price per case, 2012 is the second cheapest of the vintages shown below, after 2011. It was also ranked above 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2011 by tasters at Southwold in January – though Jancis Robinson noted of the Left Bank that “the stars did not shine so brightly”.

Still, in terms of price performance, they certainly do.