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I LOUNGE at the shaded pool, thinking. Michael Broadbent is the most loved and articulate of wine commentators and columnists (404 monthly columns for Decanter Magazine at last count in January) and he is an imbiber of good times. He is also a healthy octogenarian who daily enjoys a little tipple at elevenses, a glass of something fresh and uplifting.
My watch claims it is now 11h10 on Sunday. I take my first sip of a delicate, beautifully structured Generation V Chenin Blanc 2005. It is made by David Niewoudt, irrepressible owner of Cederberg Private Cellars. Today at least we - Michael and I - share something in common.
I return to my contemplation of fine wine prices, rising in some markets like high velocity flares, bathing consumers in a surreal glow. But is it a flare of distress or a signal of victory?
Locally, our fine wine sales struggle. Exports to certain key markets are down and locals are buying cheap. I know - my friends are winemakers. I import and export wine; I own a hotel and a bistro. Now, too, a fine wine promotions company. Tough times for sure.
Yet if there is one other fact that we know about life (besides death and taxes) it is that markets, although connected and in synch for a while, are often quite inconsistent with one another. They can express their own ideas, and sometimes do so with zest.
Are all fine wines sales on our planet suffering equally from consumer malaise? Do they all share a grim tale?
The answer, as it so often is, is that it all depends. Many producer nations are under the whip and the list includes Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, the USA and a number of European countries too.
A few, however, suffer not in the slightest. On the contrary, some are getting speed wobbles as they cart barrow after barrow of newly-acquired dosh to their receptive bankers. Some, but not many.
Take the Chateau Lafite 1869 sold on auction in November 2010, fetching a world record not for a case but for a single bottle, R1.8m to be precise. Chateau Lafite 2009 sold for "only" £8 000 per case in 2010 "en primeur", which is French for pay now, collect in three years; yet inconceivably, a case fetched £42 000 at the same auction.
Ah, you exclaim, but that was in Hong Kong. Indeed it was. But the R1.8m fetched for an imperial of Cheval Blanc 1947 was sold in Geneva.
And in January this year at the the Naples Winter Wine festival in Florida USA, 100 assorted bottles of "perfect" scoring 100-point wines collected a cool $400 000 - almost R2.5m. That's R25 000 per bottle.
I whip out my Bordeaux purchase price list for the past decade for bottle price clarity:
Altogether a tidy sum of profits for lucky bottle or - better still - case owners. Bordeaux is on a roll.
I then look at my Burgundy notes. While price escalations have not been as intense, they have certainly doubled and in some cases more than that over a similar period of time. A rather sound example of this would be legendary Domain Romani Conti. In September a 12-bottle case of 2005 vintage notched up a handsome R1.9m on auction.
Yes, Hong Kong once more. Always hard to find, it nonetheless scored the seller a tidy, indeed very tidy, profit. Enough in fact to bankroll a private education - for twins.
Nowadays too there are a number of wine funds, not too dissimilar to a unit trust investment. They invest only in posh wines of the bluest kind. I recall seven such funds at last count, jointly holding about R1bn in "liquid" assets.
Right now some producer nations, and certainly France in particular, or at least two or three of its wine-growing regions, lead the peloton wearing a shiny 20 carat yellow jersey for all to see, en route to their banks and grinning widely despite the huge weight of their swag-bags - rewards for the lucky few.
The cash register is jingling and there are smiles aplenty. More than enough, for them.
So, does it pay to invest in fine wine? Is all fine wine a sound investment?
Don't even think about it
Back to reality. Tread cautiously. Firstly are you an expert, a real one (not a Sunday sleuth sipping a tasty Pinotage at the braai)? Secondly do you have a fine understanding of specific wines and vintages for a few key, mainly European, wine regions?
Thirdly, do you have access to purchasing at trade prices and In Bond (that is, before VAT is applied)? If not, the best answer is don't even think about it. Far better to view your fine wines as a lifestyle investment.
Few pleasures are greater and more communal than pulling the cork (wait for a screw cap column shortly) from a fine old wine and sharing it with happy friends and family. Just don't bet your kids' education on selling another bottle later for a handsome windfall.
By way of a personal experience, I arrived in London in 1997 with 50 cases of our best SA red wines. They were all from great vintages and enjoyed impeccable storage provenance. These wines were our crème – Grangehurst, Kanonkop, Le Bonheur, Meerlust, Neil Ellis, Rustenberg, Rust en Vrede, Vriesenhof, Veenwouden, Warwick and others.
My cunning plan was to sell half, allowing me to bankroll a start to acquiring a little European cellar of wines. I gave up after a month. Why? Simply put, no takers. Not a single one, regardless of price, despite numerous calls and emails to wine buyers.
This of course proved to be a stellar result, the best thing that could possibly have happened. Over time I shared numerous bottles of our great wines with colleagues, wine buyers and new friends. We had fun. We laughed and we told stories.
We now share special memories of good times spent together. And that, at the end of the day, is what good wines are really all about.
- Fin24
* Von Holdt is CEO of Top 100 SA Wine Challenge.
My watch claims it is now 11h10 on Sunday. I take my first sip of a delicate, beautifully structured Generation V Chenin Blanc 2005. It is made by David Niewoudt, irrepressible owner of Cederberg Private Cellars. Today at least we - Michael and I - share something in common.
I return to my contemplation of fine wine prices, rising in some markets like high velocity flares, bathing consumers in a surreal glow. But is it a flare of distress or a signal of victory?
Locally, our fine wine sales struggle. Exports to certain key markets are down and locals are buying cheap. I know - my friends are winemakers. I import and export wine; I own a hotel and a bistro. Now, too, a fine wine promotions company. Tough times for sure.
Yet if there is one other fact that we know about life (besides death and taxes) it is that markets, although connected and in synch for a while, are often quite inconsistent with one another. They can express their own ideas, and sometimes do so with zest.
Are all fine wines sales on our planet suffering equally from consumer malaise? Do they all share a grim tale?
The answer, as it so often is, is that it all depends. Many producer nations are under the whip and the list includes Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, the USA and a number of European countries too.
A few, however, suffer not in the slightest. On the contrary, some are getting speed wobbles as they cart barrow after barrow of newly-acquired dosh to their receptive bankers. Some, but not many.
Take the Chateau Lafite 1869 sold on auction in November 2010, fetching a world record not for a case but for a single bottle, R1.8m to be precise. Chateau Lafite 2009 sold for "only" £8 000 per case in 2010 "en primeur", which is French for pay now, collect in three years; yet inconceivably, a case fetched £42 000 at the same auction.
Ah, you exclaim, but that was in Hong Kong. Indeed it was. But the R1.8m fetched for an imperial of Cheval Blanc 1947 was sold in Geneva.
And in January this year at the the Naples Winter Wine festival in Florida USA, 100 assorted bottles of "perfect" scoring 100-point wines collected a cool $400 000 - almost R2.5m. That's R25 000 per bottle.
I whip out my Bordeaux purchase price list for the past decade for bottle price clarity:
- Leoville Barton 2000 bought for 30 quid a bottle; now 130 quid, as is Lynch Bages;
- Leoville Lascase 2000 bought for 50 quid, now trades at 250;
- Lafite 2001 bought for 75 quid a bottle, now trades at over 700; and
- Baby brother, little Carruades de Lafite 2005, their second label, cost 25 quid in 2006, now it transcends 250 quid for a 750ml bottle.
Altogether a tidy sum of profits for lucky bottle or - better still - case owners. Bordeaux is on a roll.
I then look at my Burgundy notes. While price escalations have not been as intense, they have certainly doubled and in some cases more than that over a similar period of time. A rather sound example of this would be legendary Domain Romani Conti. In September a 12-bottle case of 2005 vintage notched up a handsome R1.9m on auction.
Yes, Hong Kong once more. Always hard to find, it nonetheless scored the seller a tidy, indeed very tidy, profit. Enough in fact to bankroll a private education - for twins.
Nowadays too there are a number of wine funds, not too dissimilar to a unit trust investment. They invest only in posh wines of the bluest kind. I recall seven such funds at last count, jointly holding about R1bn in "liquid" assets.
Right now some producer nations, and certainly France in particular, or at least two or three of its wine-growing regions, lead the peloton wearing a shiny 20 carat yellow jersey for all to see, en route to their banks and grinning widely despite the huge weight of their swag-bags - rewards for the lucky few.
The cash register is jingling and there are smiles aplenty. More than enough, for them.
So, does it pay to invest in fine wine? Is all fine wine a sound investment?
Don't even think about it
Back to reality. Tread cautiously. Firstly are you an expert, a real one (not a Sunday sleuth sipping a tasty Pinotage at the braai)? Secondly do you have a fine understanding of specific wines and vintages for a few key, mainly European, wine regions?
Thirdly, do you have access to purchasing at trade prices and In Bond (that is, before VAT is applied)? If not, the best answer is don't even think about it. Far better to view your fine wines as a lifestyle investment.
Few pleasures are greater and more communal than pulling the cork (wait for a screw cap column shortly) from a fine old wine and sharing it with happy friends and family. Just don't bet your kids' education on selling another bottle later for a handsome windfall.
By way of a personal experience, I arrived in London in 1997 with 50 cases of our best SA red wines. They were all from great vintages and enjoyed impeccable storage provenance. These wines were our crème – Grangehurst, Kanonkop, Le Bonheur, Meerlust, Neil Ellis, Rustenberg, Rust en Vrede, Vriesenhof, Veenwouden, Warwick and others.
My cunning plan was to sell half, allowing me to bankroll a start to acquiring a little European cellar of wines. I gave up after a month. Why? Simply put, no takers. Not a single one, regardless of price, despite numerous calls and emails to wine buyers.
This of course proved to be a stellar result, the best thing that could possibly have happened. Over time I shared numerous bottles of our great wines with colleagues, wine buyers and new friends. We had fun. We laughed and we told stories.
We now share special memories of good times spent together. And that, at the end of the day, is what good wines are really all about.
- Fin24
* Von Holdt is CEO of Top 100 SA Wine Challenge.
