HAS FINE WINE LOST ITS LUSTER?

It wasn’t exactly a banner year for luxury wines. The market for top-end Burgundies, vintage Champagnes and other fine wines declined significantly in 2023, as higher interest rates and a slowdown in the Chinese economy catch up with the once-booming asset class. The price of Burgundy dropped 15.7 percent over the year to the end of November, according to wine exchange Liv-ex’s Burgundy 150 index. Top-end vintage Champagne was down 17.2 percent, while wines from France’s Rhone valley lost 19.4 percent in price on average. After heady gains since the start of the pandemic, the falls mark the first major downturn for the fine wine market since a three-year sell-off that began in 2011. This will likely result in a surplus which could result in lowered prices.