Wine as Investment

[gbear916]

I have recently purchased some wine from a sommolier friend for about half it's retail value. I have long been considering purchasing wine as an investment that is tangible and that you can coddle. I have two questions:

1. Is my storage adequate?

I store my "good bottles" (not entirely sure what's age-worthy but my collection is very small) in a closet in the center of the bottom floor of my apartment. Temps in the apartment range between 60-75 F. THe wine is kept mismatched in cases on the floor under a blanket for added insulation. I do plan to upgrade to something much more controlled in the next year.

2. Which of my new bottles are collectable or aging worthy? And do any have a chance of appreciation with how I am storing them?

Cakebread Napa Valley Chardonnay '04
Long Meadow Ranch Napa Valley Cab Sauv '01
Gargiulo Vineyards Aprile '02
Rutherford Quintessa Meritage '01
Charles Krug Generations Family Reserve '02
Niebaum-Coppola Cab Franc '02 bottle 1337 of 18,734
Moet Chandon Dom Perignon '96

I paid about $120 for all of these bottles. The Dom was a gift. The source's storage was similar to mine but in Napa with more closet space for storing cases.

[TheEngineer]

Welcome to the board and I'm sure a few more will chime in. I'm never sure that wine is a good investment, especially at the quantities and the storage conditions that you are talking about. People will never pay top dollars for wines with questionable provinence. Most people who sell wines, resell by the case and can guarantee perfect storage conditions.

As for your wines, some seem to be ageable and others less so.

the 1996 Dom looks to be the most durable but again, needs impeccable storage (cold vibrationless, storage), The Cakebread Chardonnay, as with most Chardonnays, are not meant for the long haul,. the others should fall somewhere in between, probably starting with the Cab Franc being shorter again,...

So nice purchase for the money, .. decent price I think, especially with the Dom that alone can sell for $100-%150....but I would consider those just as that and drink up when you get the chance! Enjoy the value.

[winoweenie]

Hi Gbear and welcome to the board. As has been stated a gillion times on the board, "Stocks are for investing, wine is for drinking". There are a few botique wineries that have had investment potential over the last few years such as Bryant Familt, Araujo, and Screaming Eagle but heir mailing lists have long since been filled and over-subscribed. Todays release prices for the top Bordeauxs and Italians have a built-in price that takes a lot of the luster off cellaring them. Again, go back to the start of this post. Good Luck. WW

[gbear916]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will definitely enjoy drinking these up. I got excited. I bought in haste assuming I may be able to resell the bottles. However, in the end who cares? $120 isn't going to kill me. If it was I'd be drinking MadDog. I got some wine that I otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to drink.

You guys did pique my curiosity though. What is it about vibrations that affects the Dom P? (Eng's post)

[Thomas]

Hey, there are good vibes, and there are bad vibes; hug the bottle once a day [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[dananne]

Regarding vibration, it is generally thought that vibration negatively affects the evolution of a wine and stirs up the sediment that will collect over time in many wines.

Regarding the other topics, I'd echo what was said -- single bottles of unsure provinence are very difficult to sell, and at present your storage is fine for bottles that you'll be consuming in the near-term, but probably not great for long-term cellaring. You have some very nice wines there, though, and it sounds like you got a nice deal on them! Enjoy, and welcome to the board!