By
CultX Team
2026 is shaping up to be one of the most interesting years in a long time for fine wine buyers.
After a long, gentle slide in prices, many sought after bottles are now far cheaper than they were a few years ago. At the same time, activity is now picking up again, more people are returning to the market, and early signs of a recovery are appearing. That combination - lower prices and renewed interest - does not happen often.
Put simply, 2026 looks set to be a sweet spot to buy, refresh a cellar, rebuild a collection or set up a fine wine investment for the future.
Fine wine has been through a clear cycle in recent years. During and just after the pandemic, demand was intense. People were at home, online platforms made trading easier, and fine wine looked very attractive against low interest rates. Prices climbed steadily across many regions, with Burgundy, Champagne and parts of Bordeaux racing ahead.
Then the environment changed. Central banks raised rates, broader luxury spending softened, and some of the biggest buying regions slowed. The market did not collapse, but it drifted lower for an extended period. Months of small falls built into a meaningful correction.
By 2024 and the first half of 2025, many benchmark wines were trading well below their previous peaks. In some cases, earlier gains had been rolled back entirely, leaving prices at levels not seen for several years.
The uncomfortable part of a downturn is obvious if you already own wine. Values can go down, your collection may not look as healthy on paper, and it is tempting to stop thinking about the market altogether.
But a long, gentle correction also does something very useful: it flushes out excesses. Overheated releases cool off, speculative positions unwind, and buyers become more disciplined. Wines that were being chased at any price have to stand on their merits again.
By mid-2025, data collected and analysed by Cult Wines, across the Cult Wine Investment and CultX ecosystems showed a clear pattern. Average prices for many regions were lower than a year earlier, yet the number of trades was rising. That is exactly what you expect to see when value starts to reappear. At a certain level, more people are willing to buy.
This has created a very different feel to the market compared with the peak:
For new capital, that is good news. You are not competing in a frenzy; you are shopping in a quieter, more balanced marketplace.
It is easy to assume that only off the radar wines become attractive in a downturn. The recent reset has shown something more interesting. Activity has remained strong in many high quality areas: classified growth Bordeaux châteaux, serious producers in Burgundy, prestige Champagne houses and leading Italian estates.
These are not distressed names. They are simply trading at levels that look more sensible when you think about long term drinking and investment. A number of wines that felt untouchable at the peak have quietly moved back into reach.
For anyone looking at 2026, that is a rare starting point. You have lower entry prices, more choice and better balance between buyers and sellers. It is a very different experience to trying to build a collection during a boom.
After a long period of soft prices, the tone of market commentary has shifted. Instead of every update pointing to new declines, recent months have brought phrases like “stabilising”, “finding a floor” and “early signs of recovery”.
Several broad indicators, which track baskets of fine wines, such as the Liv-ex Indices, have started to creep higher month on month instead of drifting lower. The increases are not dramatic, but that is the point. Recoveries in fine wine tend to start quietly. First you see the falls slow, then you see more months in the green than in the red.
At the same time, the balance between buy and sell orders has improved. In simple terms, there are more genuine bids, fewer unrealistic offers and a healthier conversation about what constitutes a fair price. That shift matters more than any single chart.
Within the Cult Wines data, the same story appears in a more granular way. Trading volumes have been rising in regions that had gone fairly quiet, particularly Bordeaux. There are more châteaux changing hands, a wider spread of vintages trading, and a noticeable increase in interest around wines that look mispriced compared with their quality.
One of the hallmarks of a genuine turn is that it rarely starts everywhere at the same time. That is exactly what we are now seeing.
Some categories have held up better throughout the downturn and are already showing strength again. Champagne, high quality Italian wines and certain Californian labels, for example, have proven resilient and in some cases are nudging ahead.
Others, such as Bordeaux and Burgundy, that are usually see the biggest increase in prices at their peak, have fallen further and are earlier in their recovery. Deep value is easier to find here, but it may take longer for prices as a whole to reflect it. Within these regions, it is individual estates and specific vintages that stand out rather than everything moving together.
This uneven picture is entirely normal. It tells you that buyers are thinking carefully, not just buying the entire market indiscriminately. When that happens, genuine quality tends to be rewarded first.
If you step back, the current situation looks familiar. Fine wine has seen several cycles over the last couple of decades. The details differ each time, but the broad pattern repeats.
Right now, we appear to be in the bottoming phase. The sharpest falls are behind us, trading is more active, and early price strength is emerging in pockets of the market. That makes 2026 a likely candidate for the first full year of the next upturn.
No one can know the exact pace of that upturn. It may be a gentle climb rather than a sharp spike. But for thoughtful buyers, that is perfectly acceptable. What matters most is putting capital to work when the odds are in your favour, rather than chasing headlines after the move has already happened.
For anyone thinking about fine wine, 2026 offers a combination that does not come around often:
That mix creates room to act without feeling rushed. You can build or refresh positions at levels that look sensible against history, while still benefiting if the broader market lifts through the year.
If you already have a cellar, 2026 is a natural time to reset. You can use current pricing to do a few useful things:
Backfill missing vintages of favourite estates that felt too expensive a few years ago. Older drinking vintages that had been bid up in the boom are now often more approachable in price.
Switch out of wines that held up surprisingly well, and into those that over-corrected but have strong long term credentials. It is easier to trade up in quality when price gaps have narrowed.
If your collection became too heavily skewed towards one area during the last cycle, weaker pricing elsewhere makes it simpler to restore balance.
Because trading spreads are often tighter at this stage of the cycle, you may also find that renewing your collection feels less costly than it would have during a more volatile period.
For new investors, the appeal of now into 2026 is straightforward. You can build a portfolio at prices that embed a lot of bad news, just as the outlook begins to brighten.
A sensible approach might include:
Platforms such as CultX bring this to life by combining market data, live pricing and access to a broad range of investment grade wines, all held in professional storage. That makes it easier to think of fine wine as a long term asset while still retaining the option to drink or gift bottles in the future.
Because you are buying into weakness rather than strength, you are less reliant on perfect timing. If the recovery takes a little longer, you still own high quality wine at sensible prices. If it gathers pace through 2026 and beyond, you benefit from having acted early.
Fine wine is not only about financial returns. It is also about future moments.
Buying at the bottom of a cycle is a smart way to plan for:
A bottle that feels comfortably priced in 2026 can look like a bargain ten or fifteen years later, especially if that producer’s reputation continues to grow. You are effectively pre-paying for those future occasions at today’s lower levels.
Whatever your goal, a few straightforward guidelines can help you make the most of 2026.
Look for producers with a clear story, consistent winemaking and good support from serious critics. A smaller discount on a great wine is often better than a huge discount on a weak one.
You do not need hundreds of wines, but it is wise to have a mix of regions, styles and drinking windows. That can diversify, smooth returns and give you more options when you decide to open or sell.
Fine wine works best on a time frame measured in years, not months. If you treat 2026 as the start of a new cycle and give your wines time, short term fluctuations become less important.
After a long period of gentle decline, fine wine is starting to look interesting again. The excess has been squeezed out, genuine value has emerged, and the early hints of a rebound are appearing.
That makes 2026 a rare chance to enjoy the best of both worlds. You can drink better for less, renew or upgrade your collection, and create a fine wine investment for the future at prices that reflect the bottom of the cycle, not the top.
Handled with a bit of thought and patience, the bottles you buy in 2026 are likely to be the ones you are most pleased to own - and to share - in the years ahead.
*Past performance is not indicative of future success; the performance was calculated in GBP and will vary in other currencies. Any investment involves risk of partial or full loss of capital.
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