It can be worth considering wine as an investment. As a liquid investment, so to speak. Wine has been a lucrative investment in recent years. Anyone who bought a large number of cases of well-known French châteaux twenty years ago – and was able to do without their consumption – can consider themselves lucky today.
Like art, wine is a “passion investment“
This type of investment is attractive because rare wine is protected against inflation. With every bottle that is opened somewhere, the constantly dwindling supply becomes more expensive.
It is hardly surprising that the auction houses receive countless photos of dusty bottles with yellowed labels every day. And the question of whether this bottle can make you rich. Or is at least a little bit valuable.
In the vast majority of cases, the answer is no. Because the vast majority of really valuable bottles have been in safe hands for a long time.
The chances of finding liquid treasure in your deceased uncle’s cellar are about as slim as finding the “Blue Mauritius” in his stamp collection.
Few opportunities to earn money with wine
Only around two percent of all wines worldwide are suitable for investment; of these, the vast majority come from Bordeaux.
As the really lucrative wines sell out quickly, a subscription can be useful. Every year, around the beginning of April, the various Bordeaux wine estates and specialists taste the harvest from the previous fall. Between May and July, the prices of the wines tasted will then become known, the list of wines in subscription will generally be published towards the end of June, beginning of July and the wines can be reserved on the basis of this list.
The points awarded by Robert Parker, the world’s most renowned wine critic, should be taken into account.
Parker took the trouble to evaluate around 8000 wines.
In the Livex wine exchange index, around ten percent of the grape juices have more than 97 points. The most interesting wines are those from Bordeaux, which have been awarded 99 or even 100 points. However, the price of the bottle is correspondingly proud.
But it can certainly be worth it: at the Sotheby’s auction house, the average price for a bottle of Bordeaux wine in 2013 was 490 US dollars. These wines were sold for an average of 122 US dollars.
New world = second choice
Wines from other famous regions, such as a Californian cuvée, may taste better and be rated just as highly, but they are still second choice.
One of the reasons for this is that, in the current debt crisis, the national markets for these wines are more or less lost – and the wealthy Asians almost invariably want to buy wines from old, traditional regions with legendary vineyards with rites and legends.
Many an investor who wanted to sell the most famous Spanish wine, Peter Sisseck’s Pingus, in Hong Kong, Asia’s most important wine trading center, was met with nothing more than an uncomprehending shake of the head from the Chinese. The Ribera del Duero, the region where the grapes for Pingus ripen, is known to very few Asian consumers and so many top wines are neither considered as substitutes nor as extensions and are met with blatant rejection.
In my eyes, wine as a pure investment must be about as frustrating as putting expensive art in your living room that you don’t like at all.
Earning money with wine therefore requires the right instinct and staying power, as it can easily take 10 years for the value of the fine juice to rise. For this reason, attention should always be paid to the shelf life; and if the yield does not materialize, the wine can still be enjoyed on its own.
In any case, “passion investments” should always be driven by a personal passion and curiosity, a true passion.
Tips
Wine should not be purchased from “particularly cheap” sources, as bottles and labels are now systematically counterfeited. The wine should only be purchased from authorized wine merchants or at renowned auctions.
At auctions, wine is usually sold by the case. The wine crate should therefore be as neat as possible.
The label should be undamaged. A damaged label massively reduces the value of the wine.
In addition to the condition of the label, the condition of the capsule and the fill level of the bottle are also important.
Do not skimp on storage. The wines should be looked after regularly – and with passion.
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