Have you ever wondered how to track the value of your wine collection the way an investor monitors a stock portfolio?
Marek from Kraków does this every morning over coffee. He opens his laptop, checks the Liv-ex 100 index, and instantly knows whether his cellar of Burgundies and Bordeaux has gained or lost value. He’s not a broker or a sommelier—he just likes to know how much his bottles are worth.
Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index – from Bordeaux to Barolo
This is no longer science fiction. The premium wine market now has its own index, tracked by the world’s largest investment funds globally. And the data is truly fascinating — the first quarter of 2025 saw an increase of +8%, while the share of Italian wines in global trade reached 19.4% in March 2025. This proves we’re dealing with a vibrant, dynamic market.
The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 works like the WIG20 for wines. It tracks the prices of the world’s most expensive and frequently traded wines, from iconic Bordeaux to the currently trendy Barolo. Hedge funds use it to make million-dollar trading decisions. Sommeliers check it before purchasing bottles for their restaurants.
Sounds complicated? It’s really not.
In this section, we’ll look at why this index has suddenly become so important for anyone who has more than just a dinner bottle at home. We’ll also see how the balance is shifting between classic French regions and new stars from Italy or California. And, importantly—why it’s worth following, even if you’re not planning to invest in wine seriously.
It all starts with understanding what makes up this index and how its methodology actually works.
How the index is created – methodology and composition
Liv-ex 100 is constructed in a thoroughly considered way, although at first glance it may seem complicated. We all know that the devil is in the details—especially when it comes to money.
The entire process consists of four steps:
- Collecting prices from all transactions on the Liv-ex platform
- Calculating the midpoint between the highest bid and the lowest ask
- Weighing each wine according to its market capitalization
- Daily recalculation of the entire index
This midpoint is a really clever solution. Instead of taking the last transaction price, they use the average of the bid-offer spread. If someone wants to buy at £850 and sell at £870, the index records £860. This eliminates the problem of artificially inflating or deflating prices.
The regional breakdown looks roughly like this:
Bordeaux: ~80%
Burgundy: ~12%
Italy: ~5%
USA (Napa): ~3%
Bordeaux dominates simply because it has the highest trading volume. There’s no denying it—it’s still the heart of the collectible wine market.
Starting this year, they also use blockchain to verify bottle authenticity. It sounds like science fiction, but apparently it works quite well. Each bottle gets its own digital fingerprint.
Every day at 5:00 p.m. London time, everything is recalculated. No weekend updates—the market sleeps then.
It’s this very methodology that allows us to talk about concrete results at all.
Profits, risks, and correlations – the index as an investment tool
When I look at the Liv-ex 100 figures, the stability of this index immediately stands out. Between 2001 and 2010, it achieved an average annual return of 10-15%, which already looked quite respectable at the time. But the real boom came in the 2015-2025 decade—with a CAGR of over 45%.
To put this into perspective, it’s worth comparing it to our domestic instruments:
| Index | CAGR (2015-2025) | Volatility |
|---|---|---|
| Liv-ex 100 | 45% | 10-15% |
| WIG20 | 8% | 20-30% |
| Treasury bonds | 3-4% | 2-5% |
What surprised me most was this volatility. Wine has lower volatility than stocks—around 10-15% compared to 20-30% for typical equities. Moreover, the correlation coefficient with traditional markets is below 0.3, especially during times of market stress. This means that when the stock market crashes, wine often goes its own way.
But let’s not kid ourselves—there are risks, too. I see three main categories of issues here.
The first is liquidity. You can’t sell a bottle as quickly as you can sell shares on the stock exchange. The second is storage costs—about 1-2% of the collection’s value per year. And the third, perhaps most important, is the concentration in Bordeaux. The index relies heavily on this one region, which can be problematic.
The best example of risk was the 2011 correction in Asia. That year, the premium wine market dropped by 26%—mainly due to cooling Chinese enthusiasm for Burgundy and Bordeaux. It was a painful reminder that even such a stable instrument can have its black days.
I remember how some investors started to panic back then. But those who stayed recovered their losses with interest in the following years.
Fun fact—during the 2008 crisis, wine performed better than most assets. Maybe it’s because people will always drink… or perhaps the market was simply smaller and less prone to speculation at the time.
These figures show that the Liv-ex 100 is an instrument with unique characteristics—it offers growth potential with relatively low correlation to traditional markets.
What’s next for the wine market? – practical insights and next steps
Having analyzed returns and risks, it’s time to get specific. What should you do next, now that you know wine can be a sensible investment?
First—diversify into Italian wines. Barolo and Brunello have recently shown solid growth, and prices are still lower than for Bordeaux of similar quality. Second, tokenization—it sounds futuristic, but it’s already happening. You can buy a fraction of a Romanée-Conti bottle for a few thousand zlotys instead of the whole thing for 800,000. And third, a technical point—watch the bid-offer spread. If it exceeds 0.5, that’s a sign liquidity is weak and it’s better to wait.
Exactly… tokenization. It’s estimated that by 2030, this segment will grow to a trillion dollars. It may sound abstract, but platforms like Cult Wine Investment are already offering such solutions. And the average annual return on wine investments? Forecasts suggest 10 percent—of course, assuming you choose wisely.
“The wine market is undergoing a digital revolution. Blockchain and tokenization are opening it up to a new generation of investors,” says Tom Gearing of Cult Wine Investment.
How to get started? I’ve tested it myself and have a few tips:
- Create an account on a B2B platform such as Liv-ex or Vinovest
- Check certified warehouses – temperature and humidity must remain constant
- Purchase theft and damage insurance
- Start with wines that have a solid price history
I admit, I had my doubts. Just a year ago, it all seemed too niche to me. But when I saw my 2018 Chassagne-Montrachet gain 30 percent in two years, I realized one thing.
The wine market is no longer just a collector’s hobby—it’s a serious investment alternative worth uncorking.
MARK OWN
investment editorial team
Luxury Reporter
