As part of our series analyzing the premium wine market in the first half of the year (best performing wines by price, hottest wines by vintner location, most traded wines and market shape), today's post will take a look at the number of independent wines traded on Liv-ex according to LWIN *.
Image courtesy of: Livex Premium Wine Market
The number of independent wines traded in the first half of 2020 was up 37% compared to the same period in 2019. The second half of the year started even stronger, with the number of independent wines traded in July (LWIN7) even surpassing 1,000 for the first time; and surpassing the previous highest month by over 20% (as shown below).
In January, Bordeaux accounted for the majority (46%) of the independent wine trade. However, its share has been falling since then, dropping to 34% in July. Bordeaux, Burgundy, Italy and Champagne saw their share of the trade fall from 83% in January to 77% in July.
Over the past seven months, Bordeaux has seen the smallest increase in the number of independent wines traded, while Italy, Spain and Rhône have seen the largest increases; up 154%, 153% and 127% respectively from January.
Italy saw record levels of independent wines traded in the region, driven by the exemption from U.S. duties and and the well-received 2015 Brunello and 2016 Barolo vintages.
Interestingly, Spain, while trading relatively small, grew to match the U.S. in terms of the number of independent wines traded.
Burgundy maintains a steady growth in the overall market at around 20% of the LWIN trade per month.
There was also a significant increase in the number of independent wines traded from other regions of the world (ROW); a number of Austrian, German, Chilean and Loire wines were added.
* LWIN is the universal wine and spirits identification code. Just like the ISBN of a book, each wine (or spirit) has a unique numerical code to standardize detailed product information.
LWIN is a unique 7, 11, 16 or 18-digit code. The 7-digit code represents the wine itself (i.e. producer and brand, grape or vineyard). The longer codes also include information such as vintage, bottle and package size.
