U.S. wines now account for more than 8% of trade on the Liv-ex secondary market, up from less than 1% a decade ago, according to new data released Thursday by the London-based fine wine exchange, a sign that American bottles, led by Napa Valley, are taking a larger place in global fine wine buying.
The figures point to a steady change in how collectors and merchants value U.S. wines in the resale market, where bottles are traded after their initial release. Liv-ex said the rise reflects stronger international demand and a growing willingness among buyers to spend more on top American labels, rather than simply buying larger quantities.
The shift has been driven mainly by California. Liv-ex said Oregon and Washington wines appear on the platform, but trading remains centered on Napa and a small group of leading producers. Among them, Screaming Eagle has taken an increasingly large share of U.S. wine trade on the exchange, helping lift the overall value of transactions.
The data suggests that spending on U.S. wines has risen faster than the volume traded. That matters because it shows buyers are moving toward higher-priced bottles. Liv-ex said this does not appear to be explained by a broad rise in California wine prices alone. Instead, its tracking of the 50 most traded California wines indicates that buyers are choosing more expensive wines within the category.
For producers in Napa Valley, the trend is important because Liv-ex only lists wines that show resale value in the secondary market. In practice, that means inclusion on the platform signals confidence from merchants and collectors that a wine can hold value and attract repeat trading. The increase in U.S. wine activity therefore points not just to stronger primary sales at release, but to deeper acceptance of American fine wine as a collectible asset.
The geographic profile of buyers has also changed. Before 2015, British buyers dominated secondary-market purchases of U.S. wines on Liv-ex. Since then, their share has fallen as demand has broadened across continental Europe and Asia. The exchange said this wider participation suggests that interest in American wines is no longer concentrated in one export market but is spreading across major fine wine buying regions.
Sophia Gilmour, a market analyst at Liv-ex, said U.S. buyers themselves have also increased their purchases of domestic wines on the exchange, even though it might seem cheaper for them to buy at home. She said that for buyers who do not receive initial allocations from wineries, domestic access may be more limited than expected.
“U.S. buyers’ purchasing of U.S. wines is notable,” Gilmour said in comments released with the data. “We might imagine that for U.S. buyers it would be cheaper to acquire wine domestically. For those without initial allocations, this appears not to be entirely the case.”
She added that the rise in U.S. buying cannot be explained only by tariff concerns or other recent trade measures affecting imported European wine. “Since the start of 2023, the percentage of their total purchasing allocated to U.S. wine has been steadily rising,” she said.
That point is significant because much of the discussion in the wine trade over the past year has focused on how tariffs and trade policy may have influenced American demand for European bottles. The Liv-ex figures suggest another force is at work: a longer-term increase in confidence in U.S. fine wine itself.
Liv-ex was founded in 2000 and operates as a global exchange for the fine wine trade, offering pricing data and a marketplace used by more than 550 businesses across 42 countries. Because it tracks actual secondary-market behavior, its data is closely watched by merchants, collectors and investors looking for signs of changing demand.
The latest numbers indicate that American wines have moved beyond a niche role on that market. Ten years ago they represented only a marginal share of trading activity. Now they account for more than 8%, an eightfold increase that places them more firmly alongside established fine wine regions in Europe.
Even so, the growth remains concentrated among benchmark producers rather than spread evenly across all U.S. regions or styles. Napa Valley continues to dominate both attention and value, underscoring how much the international reputation of American fine wine still rests on a relatively narrow set of labels.
Still, the direction is clear. As European, Asian and American buyers devote a larger share of their spending to U.S. wines, and as higher-value bottles take a bigger role in trading activity, American fine wine is gaining ground as a recognized part of global cellar building and portfolio buying.
Dining and Cooking