Lafite ’98 at $9,000 Outperforms Liv-Ex Fine Wine Index

(Bloomberg) - A case of 1998 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild sold for 5,800 pounds ($9,000) on Liv-ex in the past week, matching its mid-March level and outperforming the four percent drop in the Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index over the period.

The transaction on Aug. 7 was the fourth sale at that level out of seven trades in Lafite ’98 since the start of last month and the seventh since the beginning of June, according to data on Liv-ex’s Cellar Watch website.

The regularity of trading in Lafite ’98 at that price is a barometer of stability in demand for older vintages from leading Bordeaux growers after market volatility earlier in the year during the sales campaign for the region’s 2012 wines. Lafite, a first-growth wine estate in the Pauillac region north of the city, is one of the highest-priced producers of the Medoc with Chateau Latour, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Margaux.

“The market has moved away from ‘commodity claret,’ and intrinsic, rather than speculative, value is what is driving demand,” London wine merchant Fine+Rare wrote in its July market report on its website.  The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 has declined since March 15, paring an eight percent gain made in the previous 10 weeks.

While Lafite ’98 has established stability around the 5,800 pound level over the past five months, it touched a high for 2013 of 5,910 pounds last month and was trading as low as 5,100 pounds in January.