Blog
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report September 2025
August was very much a month of two halves for Vinum Fine Wines. The first half was purely about watching the tumbleweed blow by as fine wine players basked in the summer sun. The second half was surprisingly busy. I’m not sure why and there’s no point in looking for further explanation, this is the wine market after all! September has started briskly, too.
Here are the major Liv-ex indices for August:
Last month we talked about what good news it would be for the market if the US exempted wine from tariffs; that didn’t happen. No, the tariff remains at 15% but we have certainty on that now and certainty is helpful.
This has led to the US picking up a little, even if it is coming from a very low base, and it has very gently increased week on week recently. The US have been living under the tariff cloud for many months now which must have tightened supply in the fine wine arena.
Maybe this is the last tariff talk we have here until they are lifted – let’s hope so. To finish on the subject, here’s a line I enjoyed from a New York based client I had lunch with this week: “tariffs are tariffs, but they’re better than socialism”!
Here are the regional indices from Liv-ex:
In this list gainers outweigh losers by 5 to 2 which is really something – we haven’t seen numerous positive moves on any of the indices for many moons!
Italy and Champagne
The Italy 100 has proved to be the most defensive index, falling the least this year, and in the last 2 years. At the top end of the quality range, Italy’s wines are significantly cheaper than the French counterparts and it’s the highest prices that have been hit the hardest.
The Champagne index did well too in August, and we’ve handled plenty of chunky parcels, particularly from the house of Bollinger. Salon, Egly Ouriet and Selosse have also sold well. As I’ve said many times before, Champagne as a sector has no real rivals in its genre and will always have that on its side.
Rhône, Rest of the World and California
The indices from the Rhone, the Rest of the World and California all posted positive numbers.
Rayas and Chave lead the way in the Rhone but they, along with Hommage à Jacques Perrin, have retreated the most. Unsurprisingly, Guigal’s La-Las have been very defensive holdings, as they didn’t perform very well on the way up.
Vieux Telegraph is the dark horse here, quietly charting some very decent numbers, particularly in the last year.
The Rest of the World and the California indices are very concentrated in a few names with Screaming Eagle dominant in both.
The Eagle has also suffered from having been the highest priced in the category, and having fallen the most, but last month saw various vintages bounce back. Harlan had a good month too, whilst Ridge Monte Bello is the ‘steady Eddie’ in Californian names. Vega Sicilia won the gold medal for the Rest of the World.
Burgundy and Bordeaux
Burgundy’s index came off again, with Clos de Tart and Roumier sliding the most. ‘Lowly’ DRCs, like Echezeaux, were positive, as were various vintages of Coche and Rousseau.
Although it is still a buyer’s market, we have sold plenty of top end Burgundy in the last few weeks with all the usual suspects in the mix. Star turns came from Bizot, Comtes Lafon, Leflaive and Raveneau – long live white Burgundy!
Bordeaux is still in the doldrums generally but still accounts for c.30% of Liv-ex turnover although it wasn’t that long ago that number was three times that! At Vinum it represented 15% of our monthly numbers in August. Le Pin dominated proceedings.
Mature vintages of Bordeaux offer huge relative value and drinkers of the finest wines are taking advantage, snapping up classics like Lafite and Latour ’86 and Cheval Blanc ’90.
Our monthly geographical breakdown of turnover:
Burgundy 43%
Champagne 24%
Bordeaux 15%
USA 8%
Sprits. 4%
Italy 2%
Rhone 2%
Spain 2%
Rest of world >1%
La Place de Bordeaux; September releases
As merchants we look forward to September and the releases from ‘La Place’ as it normally means plenty of sales and helps put the summer sleepiness behind us, but not so this year. The hangover from this year’s en primeur campaign suddenly returned, lessons had not been learned, and heads were hurting.
We normally sell bucket loads of Opus One (particularly), Masseto, Ornellaia, Solaia and a bit of Grange, but again, not this year.
Prices needed to come down a lot more than they did as there is very little incentive to buy these wines in this market now – in most cases there were better vintages available in the market at similar or cheaper prices. A squeeze on volume releases might have helped to some degree but that didn’t happen either. The negociants offered freely, knowing full well if they sold, they could cover any shorts.
I feel for those in the Bordeaux wine industry; these are very challenging times.
Chapeau à Chateau Lafleur!
In a surprise announcement during August, Château Lafleur, very politely and respectfully, declared they will be leaving the Pomerol AOC, the rules of which were first drawn up in 1936. From the 2025 vintage, Château Lafleur will no longer bear the name “Pomerol’ on its babel but ‘Vin de France’. This is perhaps surprising, but not shocking, as some people seem to think. After all, Chateau Lafleur has always been a forward thinking, dynamic Château, particularly under the stewardship of the Guinaudeau family, who took over from cousins in 1985.
They remain one of the few family owned Chateau producing wines at the very highest level in Bordeaux. Rightly, they are always quick to remind us that they are not just owners, but farmers as well – perhaps it is the proximity of their noses to the soil that has prompted this latest move!?
In their letter to ambassadors (of which Vinum Fine Wines are one), the family writes “Climate is changing fast and hard, that much is clear. The vintages, 2015, 2019, and above all 2022, were all strong evidence of that. 2025 goes a step further. We must think, readapt, act”. They go on to say that their decision making and practises are evolving much faster than the authority currently allows.
More recently they have explained what they want to do differently, which has nothing to do with grapes varieties, just farming techniques. These include unregulated irrigation, using soil covering techniques to prevent evaporation and canopy shading. They would also like to exercise more control over canopy height and the density of planting – both of which they would like the freedom to reduce.
All of these measures seem eminently sensible and have been tested but are currently not permissible under the existing Pomerol guidelines. These guidelines do not change quickly.
Given Lafleur’s superb management to date, and their clarity of thought, we applaud their courage and decisiveness – something they can only execute so efficiently by being independently owned.
What does it mean for the rest of the appellation and more widely in Bordeaux, and France? Only time will tell is the answer, but the really big names do not rely on the classifications in the way smaller, less well-known names do. People with any interest in wine know about Lafleur, their reputation precedes them. The same applies to Ausone and Cheval Blanc who have famously eschewed the Grand Cru Classé ‘A’ classification in recent years, La Gaffelière lower down the ladder, also.
It may even become cultish to follow this lead, particularly if it means saving your fruit. Join ‘Club Vins de France’ and have healthier crops – who knows?
Perhaps there will be an even greater rush to buy Lafleur en primeur next year with its new label – or will the old “Pomerol’ ones become even more collectable?
Maybe this heralds the beginning of a new era, one in which winemakers have more choice in how to make wine and where there’s even less information on French labels than there was before!
Parting thoughts
Although it is still very much a buyer’s market, there are more green shoots of recovery in the marketplace than there have been for some time. Some of the indices are even up for God’s sake!
Anyone reporting turnover is telling us that ’25 is better than ’24, transaction numbers are up, the number of bottles traded is up, but the overall value is down. This is easily explained by the fact that prices have decreased by 20-30%, sometimes more, and comes as no surprise.
This is also a year where US trade has been largely sidelined and new releases from Bordeaux and beyond have failed. Given all of that, I think we are in a much better place than we might have been!
It is worth remembering that in the good times, wines like Screaming Eagle and Rayas are almost impossible to find. The treasures on offer in the current environment will not last forever and those with unchallenged cash reserves should take note!
Miles Davis, 11th September 2025