Fine wine prices rose for four straight months after hitting a low in February 2026

The fine wine market hit its low point in February 2026 and then began to recover in March, posting four straight months of price gains, according to a first-half 2026 analysis by the British investment firm Cult Wine Investment. The company said the rebound was driven less by the market’s best-known bottles than by a smaller group of strong and emerging labels that helped lift prices after a weak start to the year.

Cult Wine Investment, which says it manages £200 million in assets and 1.7 million bottles across 83 countries, reported that its monthly index change was -0.08% in January and -0.01% in February before turning positive in March at +0.05%. The index then remained in positive territory through the following months, with gains of +0.02% and +0.03% cited in the report. The firm said that pattern marked a clear break from the slide that had weighed on the market earlier in the year.

The report said Italy and France led the main regional price gains in the first six months of 2026. In Italy, Tuscany posted the strongest increase at +1.52%, a move that WineNews said was also in line with Liv-ex market indicators. Piedmont, by contrast, was weaker, with prices down -0.36%. In France, Champagne rose +0.63%, the Rhône Valley gained +0.35%, and Bordeaux was up +0.29%. Burgundy continued to struggle, falling -0.2%. Fine wines from the United States also declined, with prices down -0.46%.

Even with the recovery, the market remained mixed. March recorded the highest share of wines that rose in price, at 43.3%. By June, that figure had eased slightly to 43%. That was still below the share of wines that fell in price, which stood at 49.5%, while 7.5% of wines were unchanged. The report said one-quarter of all wines finished the first half of 2026 within a band of -1% to +1% from their opening price. Cult Wine Investment also said the data suggested sellers had stopped accepting lower bids, and that prices were no longer being cut simply to chase demand.

The picture looked somewhat different when the analysis focused only on wines that actually traded during the first half of the year. Out of 5,393 wines that changed hands, the share posting price gains rose from 36.7% in January to more than 44% in May. The firm said that was a sharper move than in the market as a whole, suggesting trading activity was stronger in bottles that were already finding support from buyers.

Age and price point also mattered. Wines that were more than 50 years old gained an average of +2.9%, according to the report. Bottles priced above £500 also outperformed the broader market. At the same time, some of the most famous and highly rated labels did not lead the rebound. The report pointed to an inverse relationship between critical scores and price performance in the first half: wines rated 98 to 100 points fell an average of -0.43%, while wines rated below 90 points rose +0.57%.

That trend adds to the report’s broader argument that the first-half recovery was not driven by the usual names that dominate attention in the secondary market. Instead, it was supported by a narrower group of wines that buyers were willing to back even as many established labels remained under pressure. In that sense, the rebound appears selective rather than broad-based, with strength concentrated in certain regions, older vintages, higher-priced bottles, and a smaller pool of labels that continued to attract demand.