Following increasing market activity around the region, Liv-ex has created the California 50 index – a new focus for the last 10 physical vintages of the five most actively traded Californian wines: Screaming Eagle, Opus One, Dominus, Harlan Estate and Ridge Monte Bello.
As the chart above demonstrates, the California 50 index has made consistent gains since December 2003, and has returned 207% over its history.
While Liv-ex’s Bordeaux-based indices have performed slightly better over the long term (the Liv-ex 100 is up 214%, the Bordeaux 500 is up 220% and the Liv-ex 50 is up 264%), the California 50 has seen much less volatility. It’s seen just three negative years over the last 14, compared to six for the Bordeaux 500.
Liv-ex also notes that the index’s short-term performance has also been promising, significantly outperforming other Live-ex indices. Since July 2017, it’s up 15.8% – the next best performer, the Liv-ex 50, is up just 5.2% over the same period.
