Alternative Outlook

It might be tricky, when faced with a bottle of fine wine, to do anything other than open it and pour yourself a glass. But for those who can eschew instant gratification, wine can offer a fantastic investment. Through the stock market turbulence of recent years, fine wine has become a safe haven.

Over the last five years, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100, which tracks the price of the world’s most sought-after wines, has outperformed leading benchmarks, including the FTSE 100 – rising 62% over the period, and 15% in the last two years. I…

Are investors looking to Italian wines as the next big thing? Merchants are reporting growth, but whether the wines are being bought as investments remains to be seen.

Bordeaux Index reported a sales rise of 63% in Italian wine and said the country’s wines were becoming more attractive to investors. But other merchants, while acknowledging the popularity of some Italian wines, are doubtful that they are being bought for investment.

BI’s managing director Gary Boom said: “Italy now boasts fine wine producing areas and produce…

More evidence that wine may be the new favourite among alternative investors has been unearthed, according to Alternative Asset Analysis (AAA).

The Alternative investment advocacy and research group claims that Investment guru Michael Spencer’s purchase of a minority stake in “the Goldman Sachs of the wine market”, the Bordeaux Index, further demonstrates the asset class’s popularity.

“The fact that many alternative asset classes have become extremely pricey in recent months has meant that the more alternative of alternative assets …

Fine wine prices retreated 7.5% in the third quarter of the year, pointing to a “market correction” according to Bordeaux Index.

The London fine wine merchant is advising investors that even though there’s not an immediate likelihood of a strong rebound in prices – it will come back round.

Among the biggest victims of the slumping market have been many of the prestigious First Growth wines from ‘blue chip’ vintages that have shed up to a third of their price – along with selected 2008 wines that were inflated during a series of well-pu…

Is the bordeaux bubble about to burst? That is the question analysts are asking after new figures showed the price of investment-quality wine had tumbled 7.5% in the three months to September.

In the aftermath of the credit crunch wealthy investors poured their money into “alternative” investments such as fine wine, a trend that has seen the top vintages sell for six-figure sums.

Gary Boom, managing director at wine merchant and trader Bordeaux Index, blamed the drop on buyers becoming more savvy. He said: “The market has definitely defla…

The Bordeaux Index returned 14pc in the first six-months of the year compared to the FTSE100 return of just 1pc.

Investors in fine wine have enjoyed steady gains of over 13pc during the first six months of the year. Bordeaux continues to dominate the fine wine market, accounting for over 70pc of turnover by volume and nearly 85pc by value.

“The health of the wine market in general is reinforced by the fact that Q1 sales rose 15%,” said Gary Boom, founder and MD of fine wine merchant Bordeaux Index.

“Asia remains …

For most people, wine is a pleasant tipple that makes life that little bit more enjoyable at the end of the day. Some drinkers take it more seriously than others.

Some drink more of it than others. And a growing number of connoisseurs are buying wine not simply to drink but to make money.

The numbers speak for themselves. Over the past decade, fine wine has soared in value. A bottle of Chateau Lafite would have cost £130 in the summer of 2001.

Now it is worth almost £1,000. Chateau Latour, another famous name in wine, has …

At Château Latour in Pauillac, horses plough the vineyards just as they did in the 14th century, when vines were first grown on the estate. But this is a recent return to tradition at Latour, one of the five renowned “Premier Grand Crus” of Bordeaux, and it’s based on sound commercial considerations rather than sentimentality.

Prices of fine wines have surged on the back of an explosion of interest from China and other Asian countries in recent years. Unable to increase production – land is limited and there can be only one harves…

As the best vintages outperform every asset but gold, Julian Knight goes to Bordeaux to get a taste of the business.

The two-storey country house, modest compared with the other châteaux of the area, sits proudly underneath a perfect wide blue sky, surrounded by neatly trimmed vines festooned with lush red roses which would be any horticulturalist’s dream.

I am in Bordeaux, the spiritual home not just of French but world wine making. Opposite me, examining a vine with dexterity and not a small degree of tenderness, is Oliver Be…

It has so far been a good start to the year for investors in fine wines – with prices continuing to climb thanks to demand in both traditional and emerging markets.

Fine wine prices were up 3.7% month-on-month, according to Bordeaux Index, making it a record February for sales by the index provider and fine wine merchant.

In comparison, global equities rose 1.72% from February 1 to today, according to the MSCI World Index IMI.

The strong February comes on the back of equally good returns in January, when prices rose 3.8%, co…