Monitor: Burgundy sales activity
It hasn’t been plain sailing for Burgundy in the past year, but top wines are still setting records, and a US tariffs reprieve announced on 5 March by the Office of the US Trade Representative could unlock fresh demand.
Liv-ex’s Burgundy 150 index dipped by 1.5% in 2020, having struggled for momentum in the year before that, too. While Burgundy price increases may not be so assured in the market these days, collectors are still prepared to pay big money for vaunted labels. In January 2021, a 75cl bottle of Domaine Leroy, Musigny Grand Cru 1999 became the most expensive wine ever traded on Liv-ex, at £24,380.
In June 2020, Sotheby’s reported a world auction record for a six-litre methuselah of Burgundy after selling a DRC Romanée-Conti 2005 for US$297,600 (£214,300). Its pre-sale high estimate was $280,000.
Merchants also reported strong demand for Burgundy 2019 en primeur wines this year, ‘despite some elevated prices’, said Liv-ex.
The mutual EU-US suspension of import tariffs (on all product-types related to an aircraft industry dispute) could boost Burgundy. Of the region’s wines, grands crus ‘took the biggest’ hit from a 25% levy introduced in October 2019, said Shaun Bishop, CEO of US merchant JJ Buckley. There is likely ‘pent-up demand’, he told Decanter.