Fine Wine in the time of Coronavirus.

Despite difficult times continuing due to the pandemic, fine wine is booming. Auction results are higher than ever and the appetite for fine wine from consumers is greater than we have seen in recent times.

In Australia the fine wine market has been dominated by wines from France, mainly those of Bordeaux and Burgundy, but we are now seeing a rise in demand for wines from the United States of America, Italy and Spain.

The wine market has held its nerve throughout the pandemic, merchants and retailers did not mark down prices and the market has been stable. This can be attributed to a lower level of supply from regions like Burgundy and Champagne, but a major contributing factor has been a younger audience taking interest in fine wine. Previously the market had been dominated by collectors over the age of 40, however we are now seeing an increasing trend in consumers from the ages of 25-35 entering the market.

According to the Knight Frank Luxury index the wine market was up by almost 13% during 2020. With most of the world confined indoors high-end consumers preferred to focus on the “passion” sector with wine alongside luxury designer brands increasing in demand.

Wine Auction results during 2020 have shown large increases with wines from producers like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leroy, Armand Rousseau, Champagne Salon, Chateau Latour and Opus One seeing strong results.

Penfold’s Grange which has been a stable of the secondary market also experienced high gains. The 1951 Penfolds grange set a record price with a mystery buyer paying $103,555.00 for the bottle in 2020, up from the previous record of $81,555.00 in 2019.

With much of Australia still in lockdown and international travel unlikely until the last quarter of 2021, consumers will continue to stock up on wine. For those with large collections this might be the best time to offload some of your wine as the prices are higher than ever.