Investing in Wine

investment

I want to buy wine as an investments and put it away for 20 years.

what wines should I buy? and which ones will be worth the most money?

the beer revolu

You should be looking at buying wine En Primeur

YOu could try these guys.
They will always buy back the wine for what you paid for it - so you can't reallty loose. They will also arrange the storage for you. If you keep the wine in your garage for 20 years, no one will be willing to fork out good money on wine which may be spoiled.

Blisterman

Would Whisky be a better investment?
I know some Scotch Distilleries allow you to buy a barrel before it is casked, and then you pay a cellerage fee.

20 Year old Whiskies are pretty pricey to buy. Seems if you're willing to wait, it'd be a good investment.

MattKane

Best go to an independent wine merchant and ask for advice. Just be very careful with storage. So many people put down wine for the long term with the best intentions and it ends up getting cooked. Humidity, light, temperature, vibrations and position all have an effect.

I have a bottle of Glaetzer's Amon Ra down for the long haul (will give it 15 years I'm thinking, although Glaetzer reckons it'll go beyond 2050), with a bottle of Woodstock's Cabernet Sauvignon down for about 10 years if I can resist. We had the 1998 Cabernet open a few weeks ago and it was astonishing. Got lucky with the storage, because it had been moved about a bit in its lifetime.

whelehanswines

ng in wine, like all investing definitely needs to be well researched and is definitely not a sure bet. A good starting point ot get a flavour as to how wine prices have been trading is to go to livex.com.

The vast majority of wine investing focuses on the great reds of Bordeaux. These are broken down into left bank and right bank wines. To date the left bank wines from the Medoc have attracted the most attention.

The left bank wines importance is still largely determined by the 1855 classification where 61 reds were singled out and ranked as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th growths. There are 5 first growths (the 5th only added in 1973, Mouton Rothschild). It is the 1st growths that attract a significant amount of attention and what is deemed the super seconds like Leoville Barton, Leoville las Cases. It would be a very dangerous strategy to look at weakly followed 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th growths unless you have a direct line to the Chateau and know something the market does not know.

The real difficulty with investing in wine currently is that many commentators including myself, feel the market is very hot riding high on the success of the 2005 and 2009 vintage. It is a sobering thought to know that the estimated cost of production of a bottle of 1st growth wine is €15 to €20 yet they are being released en primeur at €400, firmly in the realms of lifestyle goods.

As Matt points out, these wines are typically bought en primeur which is a wine future. The wine is sold while it is still in cask. The 2010 vintage will be released en primeur between April - June (2011). The hype machine is already starting to crank up saying it's another great vintage although very different to the very highly rated 2009 vintage. There is a wine reviewer based in America, Robert Parker who to date has a very significant impact on wine valuations and tadeability. A high Parker rating is definitely a component in the decision making process.

A useful tip might be to look at some of the great Bordeaux vintages that are not quite so caught up in the hype machine as the 1996, 2000. And as part of your fall back plan hopefully you will be happy to drink some of the wines with friends and family if the market implodes.


What is of the greatest importance in this arena however is, the reliability of the supplier, wine provenance, wine storage condition and security of tenure. Over the year there has been lots of scams offering important sounding wines at ridiculously high prices so CAVEAT EMPTOR.

Hope this helps.

Brockagh

Blisterman wrote: »

Would Whisky be a better investment?
I know some Scotch Distilleries allow you to buy a barrel before it is casked, and then you pay a cellerage fee.

20 Year old Whiskies are pretty pricey to buy. Seems if you're willing to wait, it'd be a good investment.

A 20 yr old from a "collectible" distillery would be massive money. There are brokers selling older casks, but mostly from less desirable distilleries.

Only a few distilleries sell casks to individuals, and they mostly sell new spirit.

You'd be better buying by the bottle, particularly from distilleries like Port Ellen, Rosebank, Brora... These are all closed. Rosebank can still be picked up quite cheaply at the moment.

Or, Ardbeg (particularly from the 1970s), Karuizawa (a Japanese distillery), Macallan and a few others seem to do particularly well. Same goes for the likes of Bowmore (older bottlings), St Magdalene, Highland Park...

That said, the whisky industry has been through booms and busts, so, like anything else, there's risk involved.

There's a thing called the World Whisky Index that you can look up. Don't know how accurate the info is.