Financial markets are in turmoil. Your financial investments are in the tank. Where else can you invest and still make a nice profit? The answer: fine wine.
Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote Why fine wine prices will keep rising. All of the reasons I cited then are still true. As with any category of investing, there can be windows of buying opportunities which present themselves and we may be in one right now.
The chart below shows the results of last week's Zachys auction in New York. We took the price results (inclusive of buyers' premiums) for all unmixed lots sold and compared the average per bottle price per lot to the given wine's 2008 YTD auction average according to WinePrices.com. For the 831 lots where we performed the comparison, only 228 or 27% were at or above 2008 YTD auction averages (100% in the chart means the price per bottle equaled the 2008 YTD average)
The median (or typical) per bottle price achieved for a particular lot was only 87% of the 2008 YTD average price. There were some other attractive wine auctions going on about the same time so perhaps buyers were focused elsewhere or just temporarily distracted by financial market problems. But if this auction's results are an indication of a dip in market prices for fine wine, then maybe it's time to reallocate some money to take advantage of what is likely a temporary buying window. The global fine wine market is here to stay and market drivers still fundamentally support a trend towards higher prices.
P.S. Here's another prior post with Wine investing tips.
