A Question of Taste, A Question of Money
Why does the idea of wine as investment offend so many people?
For today’s post, I’m excited to introduce our newest contributor Sara Danese, who writes the excellent In The Mood For Wine, a newsletter focused on investing in wine. In this essay, Sara makes the case for wine as investment. It’s a topic I’ve written about not too long ago (“Why Bother Collecting and Aging Wine?”). What are your thoughts on wine as an investment? I’d love to start a debate thread in our private subscriber chat.
Fine wine investing is the practice of acquiring wines with the intention of long-term appreciation in value, rather than immediate consumption.
That is: wine is a question of taste, but also a question of money.
Of course, the “wine people” will tell you otherwise. Wine is a way of life, they insist. In the words of Philippe Guigal, “wine is also a dream.” Because it’s not just fermented grape juice, it’s poetry in a bottle, liquid history, the lifeblood of civilised society, etc. Andrew Jefford, in a 2015 Decanter article, explained this deep attachment to wine, referencing everything from Homer’s Odyssey to religious rituals and—let’s be honest—the effect of alcohol on the brain, which makes people more emotional and engaged.
So wine has to be a drink to be savoured, never treated as a financial instrument, and certainly not something to be shuffled around for profit like shares in an ETF.
And yet, for all the romanticism, wine has been a store of wealth for centuries. “Wine people” might not like it, but that’s quite true.
The real question is: why does that idea offend so many people?
The Warehouse Dilemma: Wine is sitting in warehouses instead of being drunk
A famous wine person wrote to me:
“I’m afraid I am not really interested in wine as an investment. I think it is for drinking and am sad when wines sit in warehouses for many years to be traded back and forth for financial gain. I realise there are others who think very differently.”
Yes, we should be sad. We should weep for all those bottles, left unloved in storage, just waiting for their moment. But here’s the thing: fine wine—the only asset that improves with time—is just a tiny fraction of the market. Maybe 10%, if we’re generous. Most wine is made to be drunk immediately, and quite frankly, most of it isn’t worth ageing.
And yet, the same people who mourn wine being cellared are the ones who love wine that can age. Here’s a reality check: storing wine isn’t free. In 10 years, a wine must have doubled in price for investors to break even. If storage was free, why wouldn’t producers just keep their wines until they were perfectly ready to drink? Why wouldn’t they cash in on the value increase themselves?
Instead, wines are released long before they’re ready, creating both a cost and an opportunity. Fine wine transforms with age—that’s what makes it investable. And as bottles are consumed, the remaining ones become rarer, and prices rise.
And on the same sentiment…
The Sentimentalist’s Refrain: Wine is not an asset, it’s convivial bread therefore we shouldn’t value it
“Valuing a painting based on the cost of its materials and the hours spent creating it would be just as absurd. Money, in itself, holds no real value, but a well-aged bottle of Latour, shared with friends while reinventing the world into the late hours?”
Ah, the ultimate Champagne socialist argument. Wine is a gift from the gods! We shouldn’t treat it like a business. Unlike food, bread, clothing, art, or literally anything else that has been commercialised since the dawn of time.
Next time, let’s just ask for wine to fall from the sky.
The Pricing Debate: Who’s to Blame?
“And the main reason wines are sold at these prices? It’s precisely because some people started treating them as investment assets.”
I get this a lot. “I used to drink DRC with my Tuesday dinner, but now I haven’t tasted it in years… and that’s because of the bloody investors!”
No, it’s because of demographics! When China opened the door to the free market, you suddenly have a billion more potential customers.
And let’s not forget châteaux greed. Latour 2008 was released at £1,590. The 2009? £11,000.
Surely, we’re not blaming the investors for this?
Fine Wine is for Snobs
“The whole notion of fine wine is based around over-priced snobbery,” declared Felton Road’s Nigel Greening.
I disagree. All wine is based around overpriced snobbery. “Dissing wine snobbery is elitism disguised as anti-elitism,” writes Joe Fattorini. The cheapest bottled beer at Waitrose is San Miguel at £1.02 per 330ml. The cheapest wine is Franz Reh & Sohn Liebfraumilch at £5.25 per 750ml. That’s £0.003/ml for beer and £0.007/ml for wine—so wine is already 2x the price. If we factored in % ABV, the result would be the same.
People buy wine because it’s aspirational, not in spite of it.
The Myth of Wine’s Fragility
“Wine is a perishable product—so you have this risk here that you do not have with other asset classes.”
Yes, wine is perishable. So is orange juice, wheat, gold, and literally anything else people have ever traded. The fact that wine is a wasting asset is actually a benefit—in most cases, no capital gains tax.
Beyond the Big Names
One criticism I agree with? Investors only buying trophy names. The misconception that fine wine investing is just about stockpiling the same brands—Lafite, Latour, Screaming Eagle, DRC—like that alone qualifies as smart investing.
Real fine wine investing is more than just buying big names. It’s about understanding shifting regional dynamics, collector preferences, and vintage variations. Otherwise, you’re not investing in wine—you’re just parking money in brand equity.
And research shows that lower-priced wines tend to offer the highest expected returns.
The fine wine market evolves. What’s investable today isn’t necessarily what will be investable tomorrow. Those who truly understand fine wine investing don’t just chase labels—they track emerging regions, shifting collector tastes, and the nuances of each vintage.
Fine wine, like most commodities, isn’t for the faint of heart. But for those willing to look beyond the obvious, it’s a world of opportunity.
And what if that offends “wine people”?
Even better.
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