A few weeks ago, NPR was talking about an overabundance of wine this year. This was supposed to be driving down the prices and creating opportunities for investment.
I was only half listening, so I assume they simply meant it was a good chance to stock up or get higher quality wine for the same price. Does anyone really invest in wine, hoping to make a profit from selling it later?
You can go to the winery and buy wine futures. Not a clue on how that works other than you pay some now, more later and it’s a year or two before you get the wine.
Before you do, check out Orley Ashenfelter’s web site, Liquid Assets. He’s an economist who ran regressions of rainfall & sunshine, IIRC, against price. I’m not sure how helpful the page is in that regard, but you can subscribe to price reports or something like that. Good luck.
Wine is not an investment. It’s a speculation. And like any speculation, you need to know what you’re doing (do you know the difference between wine? Between vintages? How to properly store them?) and not care if you lose all the money you put into it. Remember, you can do everything right and still lose your shirt because the critic at Wine Spectator decides to give it a low grade.
This not something to do just because you heard a report on NPR.
Good point.
That’s kind of the point of Ashenfelter’s work, I think. Actually, I suppose the point is to get publishable research out of a hobby. But anyway, I think he tried to make wine invest—speculating more scientific. For whatever that’s worth.
Make no mistake by my recommending Ashenfelter’s work. I wouldn’t speculate in wine unless I was really set for life–along with my kids.
Does this have anything to do with the Ripple effect?
Hmm?