End of the crisis? Fine wine demand rebounds

Three cases of 2000 Chateau Lafite Rothschild fetched HK$266,200 ($48,315) each at Sotheby's in Hong Kong. Photo / Nicola Topping

In a possible sign the financial crisis is over - for some people, at least - demand for fine wine is rebounding.

Three cases of 2000 Chateau Lafite Rothschild fetched HK$266,200 ($48,315) each at Sotheby's in Hong Kong this month, about three times the US$11,749 ($16,554) for 12 bottles of the same wine at a New York auction at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.

The London-based Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index, which lost 22 per cent of its value between August and December 2008 as the banking collapse hit wine investment, has rebounded 27.6 per cent over the past 12 months. Demand for top wines, along with buying fuelled by collectors in the Far East, has driven gains among most Bordeaux first-growths, with Lafite setting the pace.

"Lafite is still taking the lead role and is making other wines look extremely cheap," said Miles Davis, a partner of London-based Wine Asset Managers LLP.

"Demand from Asia is enormous."

While US and European collectors have bought top Bordeaux to lay down in cellars for 15 or 20 years, Asian buyers are drinking it younger. That pushes up demand for newer vintages and reduces supplies of older ones.

- BLOOMBERG