In the past week, two reporters have approached me wanting to discuss the topic of investing in wine. No doubt the dramatic price rises for Bordeaux wine, in particular, is fueling their interest (read "New money's taste for fine wine cleanses wallets as well as palates" from yesterday's Financial Times for some impressive data on pricing trends).
When forced to admit whether I'm aware of specific Vinfolio customers who are pursuing wine investment as the primary motivation for their purchases, I can't come up with one name (excluding members of the trade who buy from us to resell). Nor am I aware of U.S. retailers promoting investment as a rationale for making sales to customers. (Please post a comment with a link to a marketing page from a U.S. retailer web site if you know of any).
The UK is a different story. In my European Trip Observations post from May 2007, I noted that some UK tax incentives and long-standing retailer promotion of wine investment have made wine investing a more common activity there. For example, the reputable UK retailer Berry Brothers & Rudd promotes wine investment via their Cellar Plan offering and I understand they have thousands of participants. The Financial Times even publishes an annual wine investment report (for a summary, see this post from a relatively new site called WineInvestor.com).
I think that it's far more common for the typical wine collector to engage in a form of wine investing, which is buying some extra wine to finance their drinking habit or buying excess wine to have an option of drinking it later if it matures nicely (see Pleasure before profit - thoughts on investing in wine). If you nevertheless want to dive into the investing game in a bigger way, read my Wine investing tips.
