The Liv-ex “Power 100” 2022 – All About Burgundy

The Liv-ex Power 100, produced in conjunction with The Drinks Business Magazine, their annual list of the most powerful brands in the fine wine market.

The Power 100 is a snapshot of the ever-changing landscape of the secondary market and this year’s list caught Burgundy at the very height of its latest upswing.

For the first time ever, no Bordeaux wines feature in the top 10. Not a single First Growth from either bank. This year they have been totally usurped by Burgundy and Champagne.

Rupert Millar, Liv-ex’s Managing Editor states:
“Already the direction of the market in 2022 suggests change is on the way. Just as we saw in 2019, Burgundy’s latest surge may be dizzying but could be swiftly stymied by a lack of supply and an increasing reluctance to pay such steep prices for handfuls of bottles. The higher it flies, the thinner the air, and the fewer buyers there are.”

Key findings:   https://www.liv-ex.com/.

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Berry Bros. & Rudd – Some History and the Women Behind the Brand

On my way to 67 Pall Mall Wine Club for a meeting, I had some time, so I wandered into No.3…Just stepping through the front door it was a feast for my senses …. the ancient floorboards, mahogany wall paneling, antique furniture, Royal Warrants, old wine books and catalogs.  Looking closer I saw portraits of former Royal family members who were regular customers, and a framed letter from the White Star Line informing Berry Brothers of the loss of 69 cases of wine and spirits in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. What history! In short, the Berry Bros. & Rudd head office is a historian’s dream.

No. 3 St. James’s Street, London

No. 3 St. James’s Street is now used as the company’s headquarters. No.3, as it’s known, contained Berry Bros. & Rudd’s main retail premises until mid-2017, when these moved around the corner to a purpose-built shop at 63 Pall Mall.

Berry Bros. & Rudd, founded in 1698, and is Britain’s oldest, family-owned wine and spirits merchant. Still trading from No.3 St James’s Street, London, they have two Royal Warrants and five Masters of Wine on staff. Their services also include Other services it offers include wine investment, wine storage, a wine club, tutored tastings, wine events and educational courses.

Royal Warrants

Berry Bros. & Rudd has been the official wine supplier to the British Royal Family since King George III and received its first Royal Warrant of Appointment in 1903 from King Edward VII. Queen Elizabeth II granted the company her royal warrant in 1952, while Prince Charles, now King Charles lll, granted his in 1998.

Despite being 324 years old in 2022, Berry Bros. & Rudd remains at the forefront of wine and spirits innovation. Their current range of over than 4,000 wines is sourced from over 25 countries.

Berry Bros. & Rudd seems to embrace progress, and at the same time value their traditions. Still run by members of the Berry and Rudd families and they also continue to supply the British Royal Family, since King George III.

Women of Berry Bros. & Rudd

Berry Bro & Rudd has been run by the same two families for centuries; It has survived world wars and pandemics, but there is a fleet of female leaders who have shown, and now show that this historic business can and emerge stronger than ever.

The family firm began life as a grocery store in 1698, founded by a woman now known as “Widow Bourne.”

Elizabeth Rudd “Lizzy” is the current Chairman, who is currently planting the seed for the next generation with her ambitious sustainability plans and creating affordable wine investments.

Emma Fox, Chief Executive Officer, was appointed July 2020.  She has been an independent director of the firm’s board since October 2017.

“Over the past few years as a director, I have got to know BB&R very well, I share its values and am passionate about a culture where people flourish and have fun,” Fox said.

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Wine-Searcher Integrates LWIN Wine Codes into its database

Wine-Searcher has recently incorporated Liv-ex’s LWIN wine codes into its database, making it easier to search for wines. The LWIN wine codes are the equivalent of an ISBN number for books – these codes give users an additional means to find the wines they are looking for.

The Process

Type in “LWIN” followed by the seven-digit unique wine code, and this will automatically bring up international offers.

For example, entering “LWIN 1012361” or “LWIN1012361” into the site’s search bar will bring up all offers related to Château Léoville Barton, whose seven-digit LWIN code is 1012361. It is expected that this addition to Wine-Searcher’s search functionality will improve site experience for both users and merchants.

“We are delighted to incorporate Liv-ex’s LWIN codes into this database to make wine matching and discovery simpler and more accurate for our wide range of industry users,” said Wine-Searcher’s Wine Director, David Allen MW.

“It’s great to see such a significant industry player as Wine-Searcher incorporate the LWIN codes along with others like Vinous, Berry Brothers & Rudd, and London City Bond. The Wine Searcher integration makes more data points (beyond Liv-ex prices) available to more wine businesses worldwide, ” said Liv-ex director Anthony Maxwell.

LWIN is a free-to-use database of unique codes, produced by online wine trading platform Liv-ex and assigned to more than 125,000 different wines and spirits. The codes allow computer systems across the industry to exchange information rapidly and seamlessly, helping businesses throughout the supply chain describe, price, buy, sell and ship wine more efficiently.

The LWIN search functionality now falls within Wine-Searcher’s database of 16 million offers for wines beers and spirits. There are four variations on the code with the most straightforward being the seven-digit identifier, which denotes a single wine or label. For instance, LWIN 1012361 is the grand vin of Château Léoville Barton, while LWIN 1437818 is Benjamin Leroux’s Meursault Premier Cru, La Pièce sous le Bois.

LWIN codes can extend further with the 11, 16 and 18-digit codes adding vintage, bottle size and pack or case size, respectively. Wine-Searcher has integrated the LWIN7, 11, 16 and 18 codes in the search box (as well as incorporating them in the merchant data feed and text API).

Source:  The Wine-Searcher

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Winechain [a NFT platform] raises €6 million for expansion

Winechain, an NFT platform specializing in fine wine sales, has raised €6 million of backing from some of the best-known names in fine wine, ahead of its launch later this year.

The start-up, which was founded by the former head of Amazon Europe, Xavier Garambois, Guillaume Jourdan, CEO of VitaBella and Nicolas Mendiharat, CEO of the San Francisco Palate Club, launched at the end of May 2022, after securing over $1 million in backing from wine estates and wine lovers.

It has now upped its investment to $6 million and secured backing by the Rouzaud family of Champagne Roederer and Château Pichon-Comtesse, along with the Reybier family of St Emilion’s Château Cos d’Estournel, and a venture capital fund, Fabric Ventures, with the aim to accelerate its technological development.

The platform aims to be a “new generation” marketplace of wine NFTS, which is called wiNeFTs, which uses blockchain technology and Web3 (a new iteration of the worldwide web which incorporates blockchain technology and token-based economics) to enable an “interactive” direct-to-consumer sales channel that is backed by global logistics, the company previously said. It has already signed up global logistics provider CMA CGM Group, which has taken a minority shareholding in Winechain along with its founder, CEO Rodolphe Saadé.

Winemakers that are part of the platform can choose which wines they wish to sell on Winechain, and access to the platform’s global community of buyers, meaning they can interact with their community of buyers directly.

Frédéric Rouzaud CEO of Champagne Louis Roederer said the investment was an expression of the desire to “constantly innovate and encourage innovation”.

“In the vineyard, in the cellar, and in every aspect of our activity, we are in perpetual motion, attentive to the times and practices that are in constant evolution. For us, Winechain is a means of pursuing this approach and of going even further in terms of proximity and dialogue with wine enthusiasts,” he said.

Max Mersch of FABRIC Ventures explained that the increased traceability, transparency and accessibility would open up the wine world to a new generation of wine enthusiasts.

“The wine enthusiast market is expanding at a pace that is rapidly outgrowing supply, and yet wineries are still looking to find ways to connect directly with their end consumers instead of the multiple logistics middlemen currently in place,” he said. “By creating NFTs for each case of wine straight at the source, wineries will have a transparent data-driven view of their customers, will be able to store the wines in perfect conditions while the wine is being traded and will be able to benefit from royalty fees on the entire secondary market.”

#winechain #NFTs #finewine #technology #nftcommunity #nftspace #nftwine #nft #wineinvestor #winecollector #nftplatform #wine #winenews #winelovers #winetrends #winetech

‘Via Maria 10’ The World’s Smallest Vineyard

On the rooftop of a building in Italy’s Reggio Emilia is ‘Via Maria 10’, which lays claim of being the world’s smallest vineyard. The vineyard is 200 square feet and produces 29 bottles of red wine per year, at a price of US $5,000/bottle, the vineyard’s owner, Tullio Masoni, advises not to drink the wine and you will see why.

Tullio Masoni, a former investment banker, turned winemaker and art collector, was inspired to create his own rooftop winery after selling a vineyard he inherited in the countryside surrounding Reggio Emilia, a decision he says he later regretted.

The wines are not sold via a website or in a wine merchant, but rather in a local art gallery located just a few blocks from the vineyard.

“My wine is a form of artistic expression, a philosophical provocation, something to keep in your living room so you can chat about it with your friends and tell them about the lunatic who put a vineyard on his rooftop” says Masoni

“If you see a bicycle wheel in a living room rather than a repair shop, you realize how beautiful it is,” Masoni said, seemingly a reference to the French conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp, who hung a bicycle wheel on the wall of his studio. “My vineyard is like that: It’s unexpected; it stimulates the brain; it sparks new thoughts.”

Art is at the centre of the entire operation at Via Maria 10. The vines grow on trellises made by a local sculptor, while the resulting wine is aged in oak barrels that are works of art by another local artist.

As such, he asks that people treat his bottles of wine as works of art – he says they should never be opened

Tasting notes:

“At the first sip you get a lot of perplexity, but after a few seconds something comes alive in your palate that opens up your mind to a new dimension”.

Sources:  CNN;  Drinks Business

#italianwine #winelovers #italianwinelovers #italy #vineyard #winery #wine #instawine #winenews #wineinfluencer #winegrowing #wineandart #wineinvestment #winelife #redwine