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I don't believe people should use wine solely as an investment vehicle. I've said this before (see my December 2, 2006 post: Pleasure before profit - Thoughts on investing in wine). 

In the last few days there have been several articles relating to wine invsting by major publications.  For example, the Wall Street Journal ran a story on February 24, 2007 in its Money and Investing section called "Fine wines no longer just tempt collectors" (WSJ online subscription required) spotlighting some of the issues (including a quote from me on market inefficiencies).  The day before, www.decanter.com launched a wine investment guide with the respected UK retailer, Berry Brothers and Rudd.  Here's a quote from that guide:

"DON'T buy wine which you happen to like, hoping it will go up in value.  Stick to the tried and tested investment wines.  Personal taste is irrelevant [my italics added] and has no place in investment decisions." 

Wine is meant to be enjoyed, not treated as an anonymous commodity.  For many of the best wines in the world to be purchased and hoarded by speculators, locked away in storage facilities while ownership changes hands on paper, is not the reason wine was created.  Moreover, the practice drives prices beyond the reach of many true wine lovers.

The "temptation"

There's no denying that if you've spent $500,000 building your wine collection that you consider it an "asset" if asked to prepare a personal financial statement.  After all, most of us would miss $500,000 if it suddenly disappeared.  But like buying a primary residence, most people's first objective is to buy what they'll enjoy the experience of consuming (or living in).  It's nice that the "asset" may appreciate in value but that's a a secondary benefit for most wine collectors just as it is for most homeowners.

Planning to invest anyway? 

While I was away on my annual ski vacation last week, I was notified that this blog won a 2007 American Wine Blogs Award for the category of Best Single Subject Blog.  Thanks for your support and I hope to continue delivering interesting content to you in 2007.  Here's a list of the winners in all categories and the original list of finalists.

If you have topics to suggest for The Wine Collector, please feel free to submit them using the "Suggest a topic" link under my photo.  I can't guarantee I'll address your suggestion in the blog but would be glad to consider all ideas.

Five tips for gaining an edge when buying wine from retailers:

1. Identify your preferred wine retailers – Who offers what you like to buy?  Are prices consistently fair or do you feel the need to check them on Winesearcher.com every time?  See prior post on Criteria for selecting a good wine retailer.
2. Concentrate your purchases – There are two primary reasons to do this.  Whether formally or informally, most retailers will offer higher spending customers access to hard-to-find or highly allocated wines before others as a reward for their past purchases.  Second, if you’re shipping wine, it’s far more efficient to do so in case quantities which are easier to hit if you buy from fewer sources.
3. Retailer’s email offers – If you want a wine listed in an offer, act quickly.  In all likelihood, thousands of others got the same email at the same time.  Better wines tend to be sought after and available in limited quantities.
4. Discover new inventory before email offers are sent – The secret is using RSS (really simply syndication) technology, something which Vinfolio offers but few others do.  RSS “feeds” provide real-time notification of inventory additions grouped into either predefined wine categories or matched to totally personalized criteria tailored to your particular wine interests. You decide which feeds to subscribe to (or create) and can unsubscribe any time. You also can combine feeds from multiple sources into your "reader" which provides further convenience in grouping related content from different sources. Learn more by visiting our RSS page.
5. Use Vinfolio’s “quote requests” – If we don’t have a wine in inventory, find the wine in the “Other results” tab within our wine store and click on the “Get quote” button.  Our buying team will seek out the wine and provide a price quote if found or we’ll monitor availability and notify you automatically if we come across it in the future.  There’s no obligation to proceed if a quote is provided.  Requests for 6+ bottles or valued at $250 or more are give priority.

This post was inspired by a post on Vinography titled “Is that e-mail wine offer a good deal?”

1. Per capita wine consumption in the U.S. is up 17% from 2.46 gallons in 2005 to 2.88 gallons in 2006. That's great but who uses gallons as a metric for wine consumption (unless it's plonk)? In 750ml bottle terms, that's an increase from only 12.4 bottles to 14.5 bottles per year. It seems low to me but it's enough to rank the U.S. third after Italy (12.8 gallons or 64.6 bottles) and France (12.5 gallons or 63.1 bottles).
2. 30% of the wine sold in the U.S. is through the restaurant channel. Wine collectors should care because fine wine is often allocated to restaurants for market exposure purposes and is therefore not available to buy through retailers or directly (at more affordable prices).
   
3. 20% of core drinkers bought wine via the Internet in 2006. In 2000, this was only 5% bought wine online. Wine is a consumer good so it shouldn't be surprising that consumers will use the Internet for more convenient and cost effective buying like they do with other items. Now if only state legislators would recognize market realities and revamp the direct shipping laws to accommodate market demand. At some point, consumers (aka voters) will make it happen with or without them.

1. The vineyard is equally divided between the villages of Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet.
2. According to Meadows, as of 1999, there were 16 separate proprietors after certain family holdings were consolidated (not especially unusual compared to other top grand crus).
3. Approximately 78% is held by 5 of the 16 domaines led by Marquis de Laguiche (25.8%, vinified and marketed by Joseph Drouhin), Baron Thenard (22.9%, marketed by Maison Roland Remoissenet et Fils), Bouchard Pere et Fils (13.8%), DRC (8.5%), and Jacques Prieur (7.4%).
   
4. Average production from all producers is a bit over 52,000 bottles or 4,300-4,400 cases.