Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, said in its latest Burgundy report that market confidence was at ‘historically low levels’.
Trading is still taking place, although buyers have been acquiring fewer cases per purchase and paying lower prices, said Liv-ex’s report.
It also said there are recent signs of sentiment ‘balancing out’, which adds to recent survey data suggesting fine wine prices in general may show more stability in 2025 after two years of decline. All major Liv-ex indices dipped further in February, however.
Burgundy prices have fallen
Liv-ex’s Burgundy 150 index, which is one barometer of trading and tracks several grand cru wines from different producers, has dropped around 30% in two years.
That’s more than any of the other Liv-ex regional indices, although a previous bull-run means the Burgundy 150 was still up by nearly 17% in five years to the end of February 2025.
White Burgundy has generally weathered the recent storm better than reds, said Liv-ex, as also reported in Decanter’s White Burgundy Collector’s Guide last year.
Opportunities for collectors and drinkers?
Liv-ex said there are ‘early indications that prices are getting to a level to inspire higher volume trades’, but it doesn’t expect prices to shoot back up in the short-term.
‘It is likely that a longer period of price stability will be necessary to instil confidence back into the market.’
Tight allocations of top wines are an established feature of the Burgundy market landscape, but Liv-ex noted that a period of more subdued prices could make some wines more accessible.
‘This represents an opportunity to perhaps start to bring the new generation of collectors on board. Lower prices expand the pool of potential buyers and drinkers, paving the way for long-term demand.’
At the blue-chip level, Decanter’s Market Watch has previously cited reports of opportunistic Burgundy buyers coming back into the market to take advantage of lower pricing.
Burgundy 2023 en primeur prices held steady
While secondary market prices have dropped, release prices in the recent Burgundy 2023 en primeur campaign were ‘more or less flat’ versus the 2022-vintage releases a year earlier, said Liv-ex data.
A basket of 95 brands suggested average Burgundy 2023 release prices for grand cru, premier cru and regional tiers were similar to last year, and still up on levels seen for the release of the 2020 vintage three years ago.
Burgundy 2023 is a plentiful crop, but Liv-ex said reports of a ‘tiny’ 2024 harvest due for release in 2026 meant it was understandable that many producers chose to hold releases prices, rather than reduce them.
Yet it also added, ‘Early indications would suggest that as the 2023s trickle onto the secondary market, their prices will soften.’
