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By Hamish Graham
Published: 15 September, 2025
Liv-ex has released its first classification since 2023. The initiative sees the fine wine trading platform “use price alone to determine a hierarchy of the leading labels in the secondary market”.
The classification mirrors the 1855 Classification from Bordeaux, with five tiers ranked. However, the Liv-ex version is determined according to price not quality. The 5th tier begins at £284, the 4th at £355, the 3rd at £497, the 2nd at £781, with the 1st tier beginning at £2,839 and having no upper limit.
For inclusion in the classification, a wine must have been traded on Liv-ex between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025. During that time, five or more vintages must have been traded, as well as the wine being traded at least 12 times in total.
Unsurprisingly, France continues to rule the roost, with a total of 106 out of the 332 wines across the five tiers being drawn from Bordeaux alone. Burgundy has 67 representatives, though the region performs better amongst its First Growth offerings. Bordeaux’s representatives are spaced more evenly across Fifth to First Growth wines, by comparison.
Italy saw greater representation in this year’s classification compared to 2023 – 86 compared to 65. The highest average priced wine for the country was Giacomo Conterno’s Monfortino Barolo Riserva at £8,705.
The heady heights of tier 1 are dominated by one wine in particular – Romanee-Conti Grand Cru – which traded at an eyewatering average price of £172,461 (almost four times greater than the second-placed wine).
This 66 wine-tier is dominated by Burgundian wines, with an additional 14 from the region that failed to qualify in the previous classification now doing so. This uplift is likely due to the combined effect of falling prices and the value of offers increasing. In 2023 many of these wines would have been more difficult to come by and, when available, they were likely priced out by a high number of buyers.
The highest priced Bordeaux wine is Pomerol’s Petrus at £31,960, while the best performing non-French offer was Napa Valley’s Screaming Eagle (£23,881).
Tier 2 has strong representation of Bordeaux wines though towards the bottom end of the classification, illustrating a price disparity between Bordeaux’s top and less highly regarded estates. This tier is more regionally diverse and includes a number of Chilean offerings such as Puente Alto’s Viña Don Melchor.
The 3rd tier saw some of the largest movers since 2023, with Giacomo Conterno’s Barbera d’Alba Francia and Vieux Telegraphe both rising from Tier 5. Tier 4 is the most regionally diverse, showcasing seven winegrowing nations including the Douro’s Taylor’s Vintage Port and Margaret River’s Moss Wood. With the exception of three wines, all of Tier 5’s wines are from Bordeaux.
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