Alternative Outlook

Investors face being ripped off buying overpriced plonk dressed up as fine wine that will grow in value. One wine fund has issued ten top tips on how to avoid losing your bottle.

The tips come hot on the heels of a claim in the Financial Times that one wine fund overvalued its stock and a proposal from the regulator, the FSA, to ban the selling of these types of investments to ordinary members of the public.

Wine funds come under a category the regulator calls Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes (UCIS). It wants to ban these f…

Investors in fine wine see 10pc annualised returns over past five years compared to FTSE’s 0.03pc. Investors in fine wine have seen double digit annualised returns over the past five years – a period when the FTSE 100 has failed to grow at all.

The Wine Investment Fund, a closed-ended trust that invests only in Bordeaux wines, announced annualised returns of 10.04pc over the past five years compared to the blue chip index’s paltry 0.03pc. The Fund, holds an average of four tranches a year, locking investors in for five years has managed av…

The Wine Enterprise Investment Scheme (TWEIS) is to launch in 2012, under the management of wine investment veteran Andrew della Casa.

The new scheme will aim to raise up to £2 million for investment in fine wine to achieve capital growth for investors.

TWEIS will trade in “physical stock of superior quality wines from established producers and of very good to outstanding vintages”.

Wines will inlcude those of limited production, produced under a “recognised system of classification” or of a similar quality.

Della Casa says…

The first company of its kind on AIM, Wine Investors is looking to generate capital growth through acquiring fine French vintages.

Wine Investors is looking to raise £30 million, with both Arbuthnot and Keith, Bayley, Rogers & Co signed up as joint brokers.

The group’s assets will be managed by fund management outfit Anpero Capital. Director Andrew della Casa was the founding director of Anpero and The Wine Investment Fund. An Oxford graduate, he has had over 25 years’ experience in banking, including a stint at Samuel Mont…

January was a record month for fine wine investment with the Liv-ex 100 rising by 2.9 per cent and the Claret Chip by 3.4 per cent.Year-on-year, the indices were up 40.8 per cent and 52.4 per cent with the positive returns coming at a time when most stock markets were relatively weak.

The Wine Investment Fund (TWIF) claimed evidence has emerged that the market is in a new phase in terms of favoured brands.

Lafite, in particular, has underperformed the other first growths for two months in a row, and at precisely the time when Chine…