Investable Wine Markets Hit New Highs in 2022

Fine wine markets had another record year in 2022 as investors’ interest in alternative, tangible assets continued to grow, but there are warning signs of weakening sales in the short term, according to a year-end report from Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the fine wine trade.

All the major indices compiled by Liv-ex reached new highs and outperformed major equities and commodities this year, according to Liv-ex.

Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000, the broadest index of the fine wine market, was up 16.1% year over year, while the benchmark Liv-ex 100 rose 3.8%, according to the report released Thursday.

Those results greatly outperformed major equities. By comparison, the S&P 500 lost 15.6% year over year, while Hong Kong’s stock market benchmark, the Hang Seng Index, dropped 19.8% and London’s FTSE 100 Index fell 17%.

“As a diminishing asset which encourages long-term storage, fine wine is an inherently low-volatility investment. This gives it advantages over mainstream assets especially in turbulent economic times,” Liv-ex said.

However, there are signs of a slowdown in fine wine markets due to supply chain turmoil caused by rising energy prices, according to the report. Despite its annual gain, the Liv-ex 100 recorded its first decline in 18 months in July, and again in October and November.

While trade volume hit a new high, it only increased 2.4% in 2022, compared to a 10.4% rise last year. The number of active buyers for wines identified by specific vintages, which tend to have higher price points, fell from a year ago, Liv-ex said.

A survey of Liv-ex merchant members also pointed to a less promising future, with a slight majority of respondents having a “neutral” or “quite pessimistic” view about next year. Two respondents even predicted that the Liv-ex 100 Index would fall more than 25% in 2023.

Merchant members noted their continued concerns about the potential of a global recession, rising logistics costs, foreign exchange volatility, and a loss of consumer confidence, according to the Liv-ex survey.

“The fine wine market has been on the up since 2015. An increasing amount of indicators are pointing to a pullback in the short term,” Justin Gibbs, Liv-ex’s deputy chairman and exchange director, said in a statement. “But the wine market has never been about the short term.”

The personal wardrobe of the late fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who is credited for introducing punk to fashion and further developing the style, is headed to auction in June.

Christie’s will hold the live sale in London on June 25, while some of the pieces will be available in an online auction from June 14-28, according to a news release from the auction house on Monday.

Andreas Kronthaler, Westwood’s husband and the creative director for her eponymous fashion company, selected the clothing, jewellery, and accessories for the sale, and the auction will benefit charitable organisations The Vivienne Foundation, Amnesty International, and Médecins Sans Frontières.

The more than 200 lots span four decades of Westwood’s fashion, dating to Autumn/Winter 1983-84, which was one of Westwood’s earliest collections. Titled “Witches,” the collection was inspired by witchcraft as well as Keith Haring’s “graphic code of magic symbols,” and the earliest piece being offered from it is a two-piece ensemble made of navy blue serge, according to the release.

“Vivienne Westwood’s sense of activism, art and style is embedded in each and every piece that she created,” said Adrian Hume-Sayer, the head of sale and director of Private & Iconic Collections at Christie’s.

A corset gown of taupe silk taffeta from “Dressed to Scale,” Autumn/Winter 1998-99, will also be included in the sale. The collection “referenced the fashions that were documented by the 18th century satirist James Gillray and were intended to attract as well as provoke thought and debate,” according to Christie’s.

Additionally, a dress with a blue and white striped blouse and a printed propaganda modesty panel and apron is a part of the wardrobe collection. The dress was a part of “Propaganda,” Autumn/Winter 2005-06, Westwood’s “most overtly political show” at the time. It referenced both her punk era and Aldous Huxley’s essay “Propaganda in a Democratic Society,” according to Christie’s.

The wardrobe collection will be publicly exhibited at Christie’s London from June 14-24.

“The pre-sale exhibition and auctions at Christie’s will celebrate her extraordinary vision with a selection of looks that mark significant moments not only in her career, but also in her personal life,” Hume-Sayer said. “This will be a unique opportunity for audiences to encounter both the public and the private world of the great Dame Vivienne Westwood and to raise funds for the causes in which she so ardently believed.”

Westwood died in December 2022 in London at the age of 81.