The market for top-end Burgundies, vintage Champagnes and other fine wines has soured this year, as higher interest rates and a slowdown in the Chinese economy catch up with the once-booming asset class.
The price of Burgundy has dropped 15.7 per cent this year to the end of November, according to wine exchange Liv-ex’s Burgundy 150 index. Top-end vintage Champagne is down 17.2 per cent, while wines from France’s Rhone valley have lost 19.4 per cent in price on average, according to Liv-ex indices.
After heady gains since the start of the pandemic, the falls mark the first major downturn for the fine wine market since a three-year sell-off that began in 2011.