Wine Basics
Wine Investing
Apr 24, 2025
Introduction to Wine Investing: How To Understand The State of the Overall Wine Market.
To invest in anything, the very very very bare minimum knowledge threshold required is the value of what you’re buying, and how it has performed in the past.
In this edition of The Wine Investing Newsletter, I will be addressing the second point. How do we understand how wine has performed as an asset?
How do I measure how wine markets have performed?
The Liv-ex
The industry benchmarks are typically the Liv-ex indices – in the same way traditional equities have the S&P500 and the FTSE100 etc..
The Liv-ex describe themselves as “the global exchange for the wine trade” – which is pretty much fair enough if you’re looking at ‘trade only’ exchanges. There are some other notable exchanges which are accessible by the general public.
If you’re thinking of investing in wine, then it’s likely that these indices will be one of the first places you go to understand what the market is doing.
For the uninitiated, the Liv-ex effectively act as a ‘stock market for wine’. Only trade members are allowed access and users can place bids and offers on different wines.
The Liv-ex publish a number of indices, the exact weighting / construction of which is not publicly available, but we can infer that they use the ‘mid price’ (more on that in a future newsletter), of the most traded (also one to dig into, value or volume?) wines on the market for each given bracket.
The Liv-ex 100 and 1000 are the ‘most traded’ 100 and 1000 wines on the market. The Bordeaux 500 are the 500 most traded wines from Bordeaux on the market and so on and so forth.
The Liv-ex 1000 “comprises seven sub-indices which represent the most traded wines from regions around the world: the Bordeaux 500, the Bordeaux Legends 40, the Burgundy 150, the Champagne 50, the Rhone 100, the Italy 100 and the Rest of the World 60.”
The Liv-ex 1000, taken from
The Liv-ex are rightly incentivised to provide the most efficient measure of the market. They want to provide investors price changes for the wines that are traded the most, because the prices of those wines are the most accurate.
The most highly traded wines however, are not necessarily the highest returning. The Liv-ex 100 and Liv-ex 1000 are both heavily weighted towards Bordeaux which has underperformed since 2011. For example, there are 540 Bordeaux vintages in the Liv-ex 1000
WineFi
At WineFi we are incentivised to identify the wines with the most potential to appreciate, and we want to include those wines in any market measuring that we do.
This translates to a broader approach when measuring the market.
We want to include every wine price that we can confirm is accurate. This means that we input as much data as possible, clean it (sorry Aaran Daniel) to make sure the prices are an accurate reflection, and translate it.
The WineFi Index therefore does not set an upper bounds on the number of wines that can be included. We instead set criteria that must be met for a wine to be included.
10 Year WineFi Index Performance
A wine qualifies if it:
Meets our minimum liquidity criteria; the label has sufficient current market depth based on visible offer depth at a trusted stock-holding merchant.
Is priced above £80/bottle or equivalent inflation-adjusted historical price.
is vintage 1968 or later
Regional weightings are based on Market Share by Trade Value according to the Liv-ex. The highest-priced wines are prioritised for selection in the index first. The indices are calculated on a price-weighted basis.
This means that wines with lower trade volume are included, and so we can capture a greater number of investment grade wines when measuring, and analysing market performance.
The idea is that the index will include wines that are less traded, but perform in a different manner to the Liv-ex indices. This allows us to identify regions, sub-regions, labels, and vintages that out(and under)-perform the markets.
On a wine by wine level
At WineFi, we have tools to understand the characteristics of a specific vintage of a specific label over the last X period. See below for a behind the scenes look at AskAaran (named that way because Aaran, our Head of Data wanted us to stop bothering him for wine performance charts).
Ask Aaran – DRC Romanée Conti Vintage Performance
To someone getting started, WineSearcher is a good place to start. If you want to know how the 2009 DRC Romanée Conti has performed recently then the analytics page is a good place to go.
Credit to WineSearcher
There are a whole host of other metrics to look at when analysing on a wine by wine level, which will be the focus of a future newsletter.
Conclusion
All of the measures stated will give you a sense of how the wine markets are performing, and they will (likely) paint a similar picture.
The key distinction is that the Liv-ex indices will provide the most accurate snapshot of the most traded wines in the market. If you only plan to invest in the most traded wines then these will accurately reflect how your portfolio may have acted over the past year.
The WineFi indices provide a broader picture of how the markets are doing as a whole, but will include wines with less secondary market activity, and potentially less liquidity.
As a very basic piece of analysis – if the WineFi Index outperforms the Liv-ex 1000 (which it has over the past 10 years), then it is likely that the most-traded wines are not the ones that are outperforming the market, and vice versa.
If you’re thinking about investing in wine and you want to understand how the market is doing, both measures are important to get a proper grasp on market performance and to have the best idea you will likely want to take a look at both, and much more!
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Wine Basics
Wine Investing
Aug 10, 2025
When is the Best Time to Invest in Fine Wine?
The fine wine market has always been a blend of passion and performance. For some, the allure lies in the artistry of the vineyard; for others, it’s the steady, tangible returns that make fine wine a compelling alternative asset.
But here’s the perennial question for investors: when is the right time to invest?
In our latest analysis at WineFi, we examined one of the most sought-after segments of the market—red Burgundy—to see how timing influences returns. We compared all red Burgundy wines in our investment universe to the Liv-ex Burgundy 150 index, the sector’s benchmark, and looked for patterns that could guide smarter entry and exit strategies.
The Findings at a Glance
Our data paints a clear picture of how red Burgundy performs at different stages of its lifecycle:
🚫 Don’t buy on release – On average, red Burgundy underperforms its benchmark in the first few years after release. That means paying top prices straight out of the gate often isn’t the best move for returns-focused investors.
🎯 Sweet spot: Year 6 – Performance begins to accelerate around the sixth year—coinciding with the median start of the wine’s drinking window. From here, returns tend to outpace the benchmark.
📈 Outperformance window: Years 6–25 – During this period, red Burgundy has historically delivered impressive relative gains. By year 25, the mean return in our dataset was 1.8x higher than the benchmark.
⚠️ After year 25: A trickier game – Performance tends to plateau, and volatility increases. As bottles become rarer and more valuable, prices can swing sharply in either direction. This aligns with the median end of red Burgundy’s drinking window, when investment and consumption dynamics shift.
Why This Matters for Investors
Fine wine, unlike many asset classes, is both finite and consumable. Every bottle opened reduces supply, creating scarcity—but also introducing unpredictability as remaining stock becomes fragmented across cellars worldwide.
By aligning purchases with a wine’s drinking window, investors can:
Maximise potential upside by entering when market demand is strengthening.
Reduce downside risk by avoiding the softer performance often seen in the early years.
Plan exits strategically before volatility overtakes predictable growth.
The Limits (and Power) of the Data
While this study looks at the mean performance of all red Burgundy wines in our universe, individual results will vary significantly by producer, vintage, and even format (bottle size). Legendary producers like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti may defy these trends altogether, while lesser-known estates might follow them more closely.
Still, using drinking windows as a timing tool offers a practical framework for making better-informed decisions—especially for investors building diversified portfolios across regions and styles.
Final Pour
The data tells us that patience pays in fine wine investment—particularly in Burgundy. If you can resist the urge to buy on release and instead enter around year six, history suggests you’ll be swimming with the current rather than against it.
In fine wine, as in life, timing is everything. And for Burgundy lovers, that sixth-year mark might just be the moment when the stars—and the corks—align.
Wine Basics
Wine Investing
Jul 14, 2025
WineFi Q2 2025 Quarterly Report
In Q2 2025, we have seen a stabilisation in wine market prices. In this quarterly report we dive into this finding to understand how list prices compare to trade prices, along with macro-analysis and regional comparisons.
In this edition, we explore:
🏦 Macroeconomic Analysis and the Effect on Wine Markets
📈 How Wine Compares to Other Assets
⚖️ Wine Market Stabilisation?
🔀 List Prices vs Trade Prices
🌍 Regional Performance Breakdown
Wine Basics
Wine Investing
Apr 24, 2025
WineFi Q1 2025 Quarterly Report
We’re pleased to share our Q1 2025 Quarterly Report, offering a concise, data-driven overview of fine wine’s performance in the first quarter of the year. As macroeconomic pressures persist and traditional markets continue to fluctuate, fine wine’s role as an alternative asset class remains in sharp focus.
In this edition, we explore:
🏦 Macroeconomic Analysis and the Effect on Wine Markets
📈 How Wine Compares to Other Assets
⚖️ Wine Market Stabilisation?
🌍 Regional Performance Breakdown
