Market still keen on California
Weaker price momentum for some top California wines has not dulled optimism about the region’s longer-term prospects on the fine wine market.
Liv-ex’s California 50 index has dipped slightly versus two years ago, but it was still up by about 44% over five years to 31 August 2020.
It tracks the 10 most recently released, ‘physical’ (non-en primeur) vintages of Screaming Eagle, Harlan Estate, Ridge Monte Bello, Opus One and Dominus.
Shaun Bishop, CEO of US merchant JJ Buckley, said retail prices for top-end California Cabernets were ‘a little soft’ alongside other fine wines due to Covid-19’s economic impact.
That could be something for buyers to consider when looking at current releases (see ‘Month in wine’, p9).
Bishop and Ryan Woodhouse, buyer at US merchant K& L, also said the closure of restaurants and winery cellar doors meant some top names were more readily available at retail this year.
Bishop said he expected prices to ‘firm up again’ and that buyer interest in
California remained strong, with Eisele, Dominus, Vérité and Kapcsàndy among the current best sellers for JJ Buckley.
Looking longer-term, Giles Cooper, buyer at UK-based merchant BI Fine Wine & Spirits, said more Napa Valley producers were keen to attract new collectors. ‘We’ve backed Napa to be the next big thing,’ he said.
On the secondary market, Liv-ex said US wines had doubled their share of trades by value on its global marketplace in 2020, peaking at 8% in July. It noted a broader range of US wines being bought and sold, albeit Napa Valley constituted 70% of trade value.
Liv-ex co-founder Justin Gibbs said 2016 was the most traded vintage by value in the past 12 months, and trading was markedly lower on preceding vintages, highlighting limited supplies on the secondary market.