Wine has knocked Hermes handbags and whisky from their number one positions in the index in recent years with prices of investment grade wine up 13 per cent over 12 months to the end of June, according to Knight Frank's latest Luxury Investment Index (Q2 2021).
Andrew Shirley, Editor of Luxury Investment Index at Knight Frank, said two assets that have been at the helm in recent years -- rare bottles of scotch and Hermes handbags -- have relinquished their places at the top of the index, recording negative 12-month growth.
Wine is the front-runner in the 12 months to the end of June with prices rising 13 per cent and 119 per cent over a 10-year period.
"Wine is doing really well, not going crazy but growing nicely. There are no signs of over exuberance," said Wine Owners' Nick Martin who compiles the data for The Knight Frank Fine Wine Icons Index.
"One market that has been doing well this year is Bordeaux. Burgundy, on the other hand, is taking a bit of a breather." A recognition that some back vintages including 1996 and 2000 Bordeauxs, represent great value for money is helping attract more interest from collectors.
Looking at the classic car data from HAGI, which provides the data for the KFLII, it appears that the classic car market is in a good place with the value of a selection of the world's rarest and most collectible vehicles rising 4 per cent over the year to June 2021.
Most interest is coming from experienced collectors and dealers who are prepared to pay top prices for the best cars.
Along with wine and cars, watches make the top-3 podium for this installment of the KFLII with Art Market Research's basket of collectible timepieces showing annual growth of 5 per cent.
Exploring the art market, it endured a bumpy period after the Covid-19 pandemic went global. The Art market Research All Art Index, which tracks the auction value of works produced by the world's top 10,000 artists, fell or remained flat for 11 consecutive months after peaking in April 2020 -- a cumulative drop of 13 per cent.
However, from April to July of this year much of that ground was recovered with the index recording growth of 10 per cent.
In May alone, 2.9 billion dollars of art was auctioned around the world. Illustrating the allure of the street art genre, one of the most expensive pieces to sell was in this case, part of Jean-Michel Basquiat's skull series, which went under the hammer with Christie's New York for 93 million dollars.
