Rare wine sales increase in China
Sales of rare wines and spirits to Chinese buyers has led to a 25% jump in Asia sales during March according to global merchant BI Fine Wine & Spirits.
Buyers in the region have benefited from a stronger US dollar, which has helped drive volume buying while UK sales have also remained resilient in recent weeks despite the public lockdown.
Gary Boom, BI managing director, said: “We certainly saw a softening in demand from Asia at the start of the year, but there has been an exceptional bounce back in recent weeks, which is a hugely encouraging sign that consumer confidence is returning to China.
“At the same time, fine wine has been exhibiting its trait of having little correlation with other asset classes during challenging market periods.
“We are now seeing this stability driving renewed interest in wine investment, with more transactions also happening via our LiveTrade platform, which is the only guaranteed-liquidity marketplace for fine wine.”
Throughout March Asia accounted for 60% of BI’s total sales, 20% higher than the region typically represents for the time of year.
In particular, super premium Burgundy, such as Domaine de la Romanee Conti and Rousseau, continued to see strong demand.
sales of rare whiskies, one of BI’s fastest growing categories, has also increased due to the demand from Asia for both scotch and American whiskies.