Blog
Vinum Fine Wine Market Report July 2025
Market performance
Another down month on the indices I’m afraid, despite improved business levels. Although June felt more subdued than May, perhaps because of the lack of en primeur noise, our trading turnover was up c.15% as a group, with sales growth in Asia particularly strong. Asia does appear to be reawakening a little after a deep sleep but it’s still nothing compared to the glory years. Bloomberg reports that Singapore’s 240,000 millionaires are set to spend US$11 billion on luxury products this year, +7 % on last year. That’s some going for a city of a 6 million population, tiny in comparison to Tokyo and Shanghai. Let’s hope some of it will be spent on wine!
Here are the main Liv-ex indices:
In graph form, this is what that looks like – almost perfect symmetry over the 5-year period:
The indices are back to where they were pre-Covid and the ensuing lockdowns. Interestingly, our turnover numbers reflect the same pattern almost exactly.
Regional markets
Below are the regional indices. Over the same 5-year period examined above, Italy, Burgundy and Champagne are still showing decent gains, which will come as no surprise to those who follow the market closely. The combination of desirability over limited supply, the overarching fundamental of the fine wine market, explains this.
Champagne
The Champagne sub index has provided the only positive move over the month, and this too has been reflected closely in our activity. We have had notable success moving new releases from the noble house of Bollinger; PN TX20 (did Elon Musk name this?), La Côte aux Enfants ’15 and some super rare 100-point Vieilles Vignes Françaises ’08 at £4,500 per 3 – oh, for a sniff of that!
Another new release, Louis Roederer Cristal Vinothèque ’04, white and rosé, flew out the door at many, many hundreds of pounds a bottle. Meanwhile, Vinothèque editions of Pol Roger’s Winston Churchill from ’98, ’99 and ’02 have struggled. The ’02 is a little over £100 a bottle (in bond) – so snippy McSnip-Face to some, but it hasn’t yet sold.
We have easily sold vintages of Salon too, ’90, ’96, ’02, ’08, and ’13, and we have had strong enquiries from home and abroad for the soon to be released ’15 (unusually coming before the ’14). Krug has sold well too, vintage and NV and in normal and large bottle sizes.
This all, yet again, underscores the market in which we trade; super rare, great provenance and with a big fat price tag still sells relatively easily, more ‘middle of the road’ wines less so – frustrating and predictable maybe, but true.
A newcomer to the Burgundy scene
During the month, we had some notable success selling our first offer of Domaine Vigne Comtes de Chapelle. The wines are now made by Jean-Marie Fourrier, since he took over the estate in 2022.
Fourrier’s move into the Côte de Beaune is an exciting one, as not only does it mean a new roster of reds to go alongside his portfolio from the Côtes de Nuits, but he is also able to put his magic touch to work on some very serious whites.
The vines here are old, mostly planted in the 1940s, 50s and 60s and are now being meticulously farmed in the same style and with the same care as he applies to his holdings further north. The winemaking philosophy also remains the same, with 20% whole clusters and a maximum of 20% new oak. Given Fourrier’s skill, success and experience, it’s hard to see how they can be anything other than brilliant.
There is one big difference, however: the price. While prices for Fourrier’s wines have skyrocketed in recent years, prices here are very reasonable.
Of particular interest is the C-M1M (Elon again??) a wine made from a plot within the Chassagne 1er Cru Morgeot vineyard that was previously planted with apricot trees. As it has not yet been approved to be admitted into the vineyard’s classification, the grapes have been declassified by the INAO. It doesn’t really need saying but the CM1M is a play on the vineyard name. What does need saying is only 725 bottles were produced in ’23. Keep a sharp eye out is my recommendation.
What’s next in the market? (And tariff talk, rather unavoidably…)
As we fast approach the heart of holiday season, I see little reason to expect very much in the next weeks, although you never know. The wine market has had busy Augusts in the past, perhaps driven by wealthy execs having time on their hands to turn to wine – who knows?
We are expecting clarity on tariffs from the U.S. by the 1st August, but Mr. Trump has already stated that the date may be flexible. Announcements on tariffs have been made on a certain 14 countries already, with South Africa being the only one we need to worry about here (i.e. it’s a quality wine producing nation). The previously mentioned 30% looks like it will hold, so not great for the wines of South Africa, but they are such good value anyway, maybe the Yanks won’t notice!
From what I read, Europe is negotiating hard and is very much hoping for a 10% settlement. This will be taken as a positive, and the American wine industry seems braced for this, but anything more could be damaging. Having gone from first to last in the biggest buyer list by geography, we want the U.S. back as soon as we can – the blue US bar below, denoting the most recent week’s activity is encouraging, however.
Dinner with Chateau La Gaffelière
During the month we hosted a very enjoyable dinner with the Commercial Director of Chateau Gaffelière, Thomas Soubes, at Noble Rot, Mayfair. It was a very convivial, unfussy affair with great wines, great glasses (importantly), good food and plenty of good chat. Thomas guided us through some exceptional wines, the Chateau’s ’22, 16’, ’09 and ’98, Chateau Puyblanquet ’20 and their tiny production Chardonnay. We served up Taittinger Comtes de Champagne ’13 as an aperitif, which got us off to a deliciously flying start!
We are planning on organising more events in the future, so if you want to put your name to the front of the queue or have any interesting themes to suggest, we will be all ears.
And the final words: the UK wine scene
You may find yourselves surprised to find yourselves reading about the UK in these pages, as a) it’s a miniscule sector within ‘fine wine’ and b) we hardly ever stock or offer anything from these shores although this will surely change over time.
As English Wine Week took place in June, and being a patriot, I thought it worth a mention. My hometown of Lewes in East Sussex hosted a week’s worth of events, including a film followed by an English vs French tasting, various other tastings, shopping, dinners and tour options.
It proved to be incredibly popular, with one mega-tasting at the Lewes branch of Charleston House which featured at least a dozen producers, including Artelium, Gusbourne, Rathfinny, Ridgeview and Wiston.
Hundreds of people attended and spent thousands of pounds. The English product is soaring in quality, but the sparkling wine sector is incredibly competitive, and we are very much still in our short trousers compared to our biggest competitors, the French.
Having said that, the UK recently scooped the best in show for a sparkling wine in a magnum at the Decanter World Wine Awards defeating many French competitors, amongst others. The wine was Sugrue’s ‘Trouble with Dreams’ 2009 which has now sold out, naturellement. Dermot Sugrue’s wines are phenomenal and he’s only up the road from me. Let me know and I’ll go and pick some of his more recent vintages up for you.
Miles Davis, 9th July 2025