After years of French dominance, Spanish wine tops the most important wine index
Ribera del Duero, the Spanish region where estates like Vega Sicilia produce top wines. — © getty
In the annual list of the 100 wine estates with the best commercial performance, a Spanish estate has topped the ranking for the first time. This reflects a broader trend: “Bordeaux and Burgundy are facing challenges.”
Bruno Vanspauwen
In 2000, two stock traders and avid wine enthusiasts, Briton James Miles and Australian Justin Gibbs, came up with the idea of trading wine like stocks: via a stock exchange platform. They established their company in London, Europe’s financial hub, and named it Liv-Ex: ‘London International Vintners Exchange.’ On this platform, thousands of wines are traded daily at prices that, like stocks, fluctuate based on supply and demand.
Each year, Liv-Ex publishes a ‘Power 100 List’ of the estates that performed best on the platform. Initially, 90% of the wines traded were French, with 70% from Bordeaux, giving the index a strong French bias. However, a new era seems to have begun. Based on last year’s performance—a 324% increase in trading volume and a 310% increase in sales value—a Spanish estate has now claimed the top spot: Vega Sicilia. Italian estates took second and third place, while thirteen French estates completely dropped out of the top 100.
National symbol
“What La Romanée-Conti is for France, Vega Sicilia is for Spain,” says Wim Vanleuven of La Buena Vida, the Flemish distributor of the estate in Belgium. “For Spaniards, it’s a national symbol. The king frequently visits the estate, and other visitors are rarely allowed.”
The estate’s history dates back to 1864, when Spanish businessman Don Eloy Lecanda y Chaves imported 18,000 “exotic plants” from Bordeaux, including vines of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. “He was the first to prove that top-quality wine could be produced in the Ribera del Duero region,” Vanleuven explains.
However, the Lecanda family fell into financial difficulties, and the estate was sold multiple times. In 1982, it was acquired by the Alvarez family, one of Spain’s wealthiest families. David Alvarez, a math teacher, built a massive services group, Grupo Eulen, employing 100,000 people in Spain and Latin America in sectors like cleaning, security, temporary staffing, and gardening. He invested €25 million into Vega Sicilia, bringing the estate back to prominence under the leadership of one of his sons.
Bottles from the 1960s
“Having a lot of money is an advantage when you aim to produce one of the world’s best wines,” Vanleuven says. “You don’t need to focus on quick sales; you have time.” For example, the flagship wine Unico, made from the tempranillo (Spain’s most important grape) and cabernet sauvignon, spends ten years aging in Vega Sicilia’s cellars before being released. Only 100,000 bottles are produced per vintage.
“Unico is distributed in small allocations to 150 countries, including Belgium,” Vanleuven adds. “But in some years, if they’re not 100% satisfied with the grape quality, no Unico is produced. This ensures the wine remains scarce on the global market, which partly explains the high prices.” For instance, a bottle of Unico from the 2014 vintage costs €430.
Tempranillo grapes being harvested in Ribera del Duero. — © getty
In terms of quality, the flagship wine lives up to its name: “Unico is a textbook example of a wine that combines power and finesse, a trait reserved for the great wines of the world. But it’s not a wine to drink young—it needs time to fully develop. Unico can also age exceptionally well; wines from the 1960s and 1970s are still remarkably vibrant today.” According to La Buena Vida’s website, a bottle of Unico from the 2014 vintage will reach its peak between 2036 and 2043.
Wine as an investment
Besides Vega Sicilia, two other Spanish estates have made it into Liv-Ex’s top 100: Dominio de Pingus, also from Ribera del Duero, and López de Heredia from Rioja.
The Liv-Ex Power List highlights market trends based on data, but it also reflects a broader phenomenon where wealthy buyers view top wines as investments—not to drink, but to sell later at a higher price. Like stocks, these prices can skyrocket before eventually falling again.
This is what many French wines are currently experiencing. “Burgundy has taken a hard hit in the market,” Vanleuven says. “And Bordeaux’s big names have been struggling for some time.”
The Top 20 in the Power 100 Wine List
1. Vega Sicilia, Ribera del Duero, Spain
2. Gaja, Piedmont, Italy
3. San Guido, Tuscany, Italy
4. Joseph Drouhin/Drouhin-Vaudon, Burgundy, France
5. Château d’Yquem, Sauternes, France
6. Henri Boillot, Burgundy, France
7. Château Mouton-Rothschild, Bordeaux, France
8. Penfolds, Australia
9. Domaine Leroy, Burgundy, France
10. Château Cheval Blanc, Bordeaux, France
11. E. Guigal, Rhône, France
12. Domaine Leflaive, Burgundy, France
13. Château Latour, Bordeaux, France
14. Dom Pérignon, Champagne, France
15. Roagna, Piedmont, Italy
16. Château Margaux, Bordeaux, France
17. Bouchard Père et Fils, Burgundy, France
18. Giuseppe Rinaldi, Piedmont, Italy
19. Faiveley, Burgundy, France
20. Giacomo Conterno, Piedmont, Italy