Comments on: Fine Wine Investment

By: Laurel Boehm - Silkwood Wines

Laurel Boehm - Silkwood Wines — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:53:38 +0000

Here in Australia, fine wine is definitely an investment, but as with all such things, it really relies on the buyer (of that investment, in the future) seeing value in your wine.

Even a dozen bottles of Grange (considered by many experts as Australia's PREMIUM wine) is of limited investment value if you can't find someone who sees the true value in it.

So, the secret (IMO) is to buy carefully. Don't invest in fad wines or 'here-today, gone-tomorrow' wines, because chances are they'll NOT be popular in 5-10 years (however long you want to hang on to them), in which case you wasted your money!

Laurel Boehm
Silkwood Wines
Pemberton, Western Australia

By: Casey

Casey — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:49:40 +0000

Cannot agree with you more that top-end fine wines have proved to be sound investments & would continue to do so. Actually I’m BBR’s customer from HK and I’m really glad that I have bought some 1996 & 2005 Lafite in 2006 which have proved to be excellent alternative investments with almost 90% return. They even have a hedging effect to balance my exposure in the volatile stock market.

With the huge hot demand from Asia, especially from China for Lafite, I really cannot see any reason for the price surge to stop unless there are dramatic downturns in the Asian economies.

By: Joss Fowler

Joss Fowler — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:57:04 +0000

We would suggest speaking to a Financial Advisor about this but yes, in theory wine is exempt from Capital Gains Tax as it is classed as a chattel and a wasting asset (something whose normal lifespan doesn’t exceed 50 years). Certain rules apply, and of course there are wines that will keep for 50 years so vintage Port (not really an investment performer anyway) might not qualify.

By: Phil Tomlinson

Phil Tomlinson — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:42:04 +0000

I do not think the market for fine wines will ever stagnate, given such an extensively longstanding heritage

By: Martini-Lover

Martini-Lover — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:04:15 +0000

Could anyone from BBR please confirm if an owner of a large collection of fine wine will have to pay capital gains tax upon a sale of it as an asset?

As, the article claims, it is a tangible asset and it would be normal that any dramatic increase in value would be subject to a 40% tax when it comes to the point of sale.

Such a tax would no doubt affect the ‘true value’ of such an asset considerably. Moreso, when it comes to sales of other assets such as land or shares there are exceptions in available such as single home owner and business asset purchase release. Unless the vendor is a purveyor of fine wines, it would be difficult to convince HMRC that they should benefit from such a tax exemption.

If this is the case then investment in fine wine for a personal collection is a nothing more than an expensive past-time, investing in it as an alternative to an underperforming stock market, is an ultimately fruitless endeavour.

By: Rafiella Copella

Rafiella Copella — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:10:46 +0000

I have no doubt that the price rises over the past couple of years will continue to soar because, as you say, fine wine is a tangible asset, a unique expression of beauty which pays great tribute to the hard work and expertise of its creator – the winemaker.

Without meaning to sound too sombre, in today’s monotonous society where fashion, music and even to some extent art are recycled, it’s refreshing to own and to appreciate something which continues to evolve and surprise, a real rarity.