The Drinks Business and Liv-ex have published the 2012 edition of the Liv-ex Power 100 - our annual list of the most "powerful" brands in the fine wine marketplace.
2012 key findings:
- Domaine Romanee Conti has knocked Lafite Rothschild off first place, with the First Growth falling eight places. Burgundy’s popularity in Asia secured the brand’s crown.
- First Growths have dropped off the top spots as Asian demand waned. The five Premier Crus may have accounted for the most trade on Liv-ex, but Lafite’s share was down 9.4 percentage points year-on-year. Poor price performance was the biggest factor in their descents.
- An appetite for Right Bank Bordeaux has seen several wines climb up the table, including recently promoted Pavie (+18) and Figeac (new entry). Surprisingly it was new entry Clos Fourtet that saw the greatest price change, up 34%.
- With buyers branching out beyond Bordeaux, wines from Italy and Champagne are increasingly en vogue. Positive price movements pushed the Super Tuscans up the table this year.
Each brand is ranked on five criteria: the level of trade it attracts on the Liv-ex Fine Wine Exchange; its average score from Robert Parker (with Allen Meadows’ scores used for Burgundy); average price; one-year price performance; and weighted production (price multiplied by average production). The brands are then ranked on their aggregate score across these five criteria. Below is the data on the top 100 wines.
Our media partner for this research, The Drinks Business, has published an analysis of the results in the December issue. You can download the file here (including the full rankings and methodology).
Identifying value
2012 has seen buyers turning from First Growths towards Bordeaux brands that offer quality for more affordable prices. With this in mind, we restructured the Power 100 to see which wines have been offering value for money.
For this alternative ranking we focused solely on Bordeaux wines that have achieved an average score of more than 90 points. In order to identify lower-priced buying opportunities, we removed all of the labels that are trading at more than £2,000 per case. This left us with 38 chateaux, which we then ranked according to their average price (the lower the price, the better the ranking), average score, and one-year performance. The results are shown below.
For the second year in a row Pontet Canet headed the Value list, with the wine’s quality pushing it ahead of high-performer Clos Fourtet. As with last year, the list is dominated by super seconds and acclaimed Right Bank wines, with the First Growths’ second wines bringing up the rear.
Comments