Collectors and institutions have been investing in wine for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until the middle of the ‘90 that fine wine became global and investing in it became accessible to anyone with money to invest. In the past, buyers purchased double or triple the quantity of wine that they would consume and then sold the excess to cover their drinking expenses and future investments. This was the common practice until about 15 years ago, when the Far East became as interested in wine as Europe and North America, and the demand for Bordeaux wines surged to such an extent that more and more investors became interested in wine as an asset.

Data concerning wine prices is rather hard to get, and doesn’t always reflect the actual state of wine investing. Nevertheless, from the little valid data that is available experts tend to estimate that the price for top bottles has increased by 15% on average each year since the middle of the ‘80. During this interval there have been ‘bad’ periods in which prices stopped raising or even fell, most notable between 1998 and 2002, when Eastern Asian countries suffered economic strain. But for the stagnation or decline during those periods, the ‘good’ periods, most notably the one between 2005 and 2007, have well compensated.

Overall, the top fine wines have been indisputably one of the best investments in luxury goods over long term during the last decades. Still, this doesn’t mean that all wine investments are perfectly secure and always profitable. During the financial crisis that emerged in full strength in late 2008, prices for the top wines produced three years earlier declined. But now the demand for fine wines is greater than it has been for a long time. Top bottles from Bordeaux, such as those produced by Lafite or Latour are now sought by ardent collectors from China and other East Asian countries, who are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a case.

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