A new report from Liv-ex, the UK-based exchange for fine wine, offers one of the clearest pictures yet of where demand is genuinely returning to the secondary market — and where it isn't.
Rather than tracking asking prices or online listings, Liv-ex built its analysis exclusively from completed trades on its own platform. The firm argues this is a far more honest gauge of market health: listed prices can reflect wishful thinking, but a completed sale reflects what a buyer was actually willing to pay. For a label to qualify as being on a genuine upward path, Liv-ex looked for three to four consecutive quarterly increases in average transaction price over the past twelve months.
Bordeaux still leads on liquidity
Unsurprisingly, Bordeaux dominates the list of wines showing positive momentum. The region's depth of trading activity — simply put, more buyers and sellers transacting more often — makes price signals there more reliable than in thinner markets. Château Mouton Rothschild alone contributed five vintages to the list: 2005, 2008, 2010, 2015 and 2018.
The 2015 vintage is arguably the standout case. Liv-ex notes that most of the gains came late in 2015, and prices have now climbed back to roughly where they stood in 2020 — evidence, the platform suggests, that the wine has found a firm price floor after months of gradual recovery.
Lafite Rothschild 2015 tells a slightly different story. It, too, has returned to around 2020 pricing levels, but Liv-ex sees less evidence that the rally is running out of steam. A tight bid-ask spread alongside repeated quarterly gains points to continued strength rather than a plateau.
Three further Bordeaux names — Lafite 2021, Lafite 2019 and Lynch-Bages 2018 — followed a similar arc: each fell between Q2 and Q3 2025 before rebounding with consecutive quarterly increases. Lynch-Bages 2018 fell just short of Liv-ex's formal selection criteria, though the firm says the shift in trend is already visible.
Why does this matter beyond individual labels? In a highly liquid category like Bordeaux, repeated increases carry more weight because they're built on volume — multiple real transactions — rather than one-off sales that could be noise. For trading desks, that consistency can be read as a signal that capital is starting to flow back into the most actively traded stock.
Champagne's quiet stabilisation
Champagne is the report's other major focus. Liv-ex points out that its Champagne 50 index appears to have found support after the category's recent correction, resuming its longer-term upward trajectory.
Two non-vintage Champagnes lead the recovery: Pol Roger Reserve Brut and Jacques Selosse Initial. According to figures supplied by Liv-ex, Pol Roger Reserve Brut's average transaction price rose from £284 (roughly €333) in Q2 2025 to £294 (about €345) in Q2 2026. Jacques Selosse Initial climbed over the same period from £3,264 (around €3,829) to £3,569 (approximately €4,187).
That two accessible, high-turnover non-vintage labels are leading the Champagne rebound is telling. It suggests buyers re-entering the market are gravitating first toward brands they know they can resell easily, rather than speculative or rarer bottlings.
Selective, not sweeping
Sophia Gilmour, market analyst at Liv-ex, frames the broader picture cautiously: some wines could still see prices fall further, while others appear to have hit bottom and begun a slow climb. Her advice to buyers seeking lower-risk entry points is to focus on labels already displaying clear stabilisation signals.
Liv-ex is careful to stress that this is not a market-wide rebound. Gains are concentrated in specific regions and price points — generally wines that are either more affordably priced now or easier to resell. The firm's broader takeaway is methodological as much as it is market-driven: watching what actually trades hands tells a more reliable story than watching what's merely listed for sale.
Founded in 2000 and headquartered in the UK, with additional operations in France and Belgium, Liv-ex connects more than 550 wine businesses across 42 countries through its exchange and information services.
Source: Vinetur