Alternative Outlook

Tasmania could become the latest emerging nation for wine investment, with additional support from the government.

Wine investment activities are dominated in the Old World, namely France, Germany and Italy, but some countries are emerging as new alternative investments as their wine making takes off.

Supporting Tasmania’s claim as a future location for wine investment is the government, which has produced a guide for investors that promotes the state’s winemaking industry.

“Tasmania’s wine industry may be relatively small, but…

A collection of Chateau Lafite Rothschild valued at 850,000 pounds ($1.3 million) and a “super-lot” of Romanee-Conti estimated at as much as $800,000 are among the December highlights as another record year of international wine auctions draws to a close.

Global wine sales by the leading five international auction houses — Acker Merrall & Condit, Christie’s International, Sotheby’s, Zachys and Hart Davis Hart Wine Co. — have reached at least $367 million so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. The figure is …

A FUND management company in Shanghai has become the first in China to channel the twin passions of the country’s emerging wealthy elite: a bottle of full-bodied premier cru and eye-watering investment returns.

The debut of China’s first fine wine mutual fund comes amid a frenzy of interest in high-yielding, alternative investments as inflation continues to climb at more than 6.5 per cent.

The De Rouge Fund, citing the performance of similar wine funds in other countries, touts its ability to deliver 15 per cent annualised returns. Its la…

Fergus Fung swipes his card across a sensor and waits as his face is scanned by a computer to match his profile. A steel door opens and the Hong Kong entrepreneur enters a vault that holds his treasure of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

This is the Hong Kong Wine Vault, one of more than 15 repositories that have been set up in the past three years in the Chinese city as it overtook London and New York as the world’s biggest auction market for top wine labels like Chateau Lafite, Domaine Romanée-Conti and Krug. The temperature is a constant 13 Cels…

American wine critic Robert Parker: Some people love him; others, well, don’t.

But his influence was felt last week after he released a positive review for the 2010 vintage of premium Bordeaux wines.

Mr. Parker said on his website last Tuesday that the wine, still two years away from delivery, was one of the “greatest Bordeaux vintages I have tasted in my career.”

The next day, wine buffs around the world flooded their brokers with orders. Business was particularly brisk in Hong Kong, says Guy Ruston, a sales executive at wine…