Fine wine buyers flock to safe havens, as France and Italy head up Liv-ex's classification report

France retained its top spot in this year’s Liv-ex Classification report – a hierarchy of the leading labels in the secondary market wines – although Italy rose up the list and the top US wines ranked higher than any of the original Bordeaux First Growths.

a view of the vineyards in the wine-making region of Burgundy, france

This year saw France account for nearly two thirds of the entries on the overall list, with 207 out of a total 332 wines (62%), split across the five price tiers. However, Italy has undoubtedly strengthened its position in the last year, with 86 wines making the overall list – an increase of 19 wine in the last two years. Indeed Italy now accounts for 18.6% of the wines on the list, with Tuscany coming in third place after Bordeaux and Burgundy, with around 13.5% of all entries, just ahead of Piedmont (10.8%). Of these Italian wines, 9 were in the top tier bracket, comprising five wines from Tuscany and four from Piedmont.

Meanwhile Australia saw its entry fall from five last year to only two, only one of which was in the top tier, reinforcing the tendency for traditional “safe” harbours to perform well, Liv-ex said, notably France, Italy, the US and Spain. This reflected “a tendency of buyers to move towards safety – better-understood regions — while market conditions are uncertain” it said.

Top Tier

The top tier, which comprises wines that sell for more than £2,839, accounted for just under 20% of the wines (19.8%). This was dominated by Burgundy, taking with Domaine de la Romanee-Conti’s taking the top three spots with Romanee-Conti, La Tache and Richebourg. However, wines from California also did well in the top tier, with Screaming Eagle coming in sixth place, Harlan in 13th, with Promontory, Scarecrow and Screaming Eagle’s second wine all ranking higher than the traditional Bordeaux First Growths. Meanwhile, in Bordeaux, Petrus took the lead in the fourth spot, with Le Pin in 8th position, well ahead of the next Bordeaux wine, Chateau Lafleur at number 26.

By far the most populous tier being wines that sold for £781 to £2,838, (42%), representing a fairly diverse geographical spread that was “more obscure than expected”. Bordeaux was heavily represented in the second tier, with 85 wines, however, as Liv-ex pointed out, these wines were “clustered towards the bottom of the list, highlighting a price disparity between Bordeaux’s top and less highly regarded estates” contrasting with Champagne (11 wines) which “exhibit[ed] a wider spread”.

The diversity continued to increase in the third and fourth tiers, even though numbers of wines fell, although the fifth tier (wines sold for £284-354) seeing the fewest number of wines (18) and also the smallest variation, with two Italian wines and one New Zealand wine, alongside 15 wines from Bordeaux. These consisted of Grand Crus from Saint-Emilion, Pessac Cru Classes and Second Growth Second Wines as well as Third, Fourth and Fifth Growths.

Meanwhile Burgundy remained the French region with the highest number of wines in the first tier (33), ahead of Bordeaux (10) and Champagne (4), while Italy contributed nine, the USA six and Spain, two.

Only two wines from Burgundy had entered the top tier – Clos des Lambrays and Domaine Leflaive’s Puligny-Montrachet, Clavoillon along with 14 Burgundies that did not qualify last year at all.

Overall, Italy saw a boost, with 19 more entrants, up from 65 in 2023.