Wine And Alcohol Investing

Anyone who is in the investment business surely knows that there are wines and alcohols that have become investment grade material. And just like anything that promises to bring people money, people flock to have it.

There are now many people who buy wine and alcohol not to drink them, but to keep them as investments. But could these people be correct in their actions to collect wines and alcohol? Is collecting wines and alcohol really a good idea?

Let’s answer the question that’s in everybody’s mind at the onset of reading this article: “Is investing in wines and alcohols profitable?”

The answer to this is: “Yes, for people who have a lot of money to invest.”

Why is this so? Are there cheap wines and alcohols that could exponentially increase in value and make their owners rich at some point in their life?
The answer to this is: “It’s highly unlikely that a cheap wine or alcohol will increase in value exponentially over time.”

This is because investing in wines and alcohols is like investing in cars. It’s highly unlikely that your cheap car would become a collector’s item. It’s only sports cars and very expensive luxury cars that usually become collectible investments.

The advice of many wine and alcohol experts is forget about investing in cheap wines and alcohols. You’re better off just drinking them. This is because the value of wine and alcohols can be very subjective.

Wines and alcohols tend to get priced because of their pedigree. The more a wine and alcohol brand is reputed to be of high quality because of the pedigree of the wine or alcohol company, the more it becomes valuable.

If you really have the money to invest in collectible wines and alcohols, there are certain wines and alcohols that have a reputation of being of very high quality that they become collectible.

Wines coming from European vineyards are well regarded especially those coming from France. I’m no expert in wines so the best that I could do is to link you to Google using the search keywords “the most collectible wines in the world.”.

As you can see, the prices of many of these wines are way out of reach for many smalltime investors. With some of the prices of these wines, you could already buy a brand new car and even more.

Just take a look at the wine prices of one of the top websites for collecting wine, Wine-Searcher, just take a look at their list:

Online List: The World's Top 50 Most Expensive Wines

Are you able to buy wines that have five to six digit dollars in value? Think carefully. Besides the cost of the wine, you also have to spend good money ensuring that your collectable investment wine does not spoil.

You could also check out their list of the most expensive whiskies:

Online List: The World's Top 25 Most Expensive Whiskies

As you can see, the prices of these whiskies are also way beyond the means of many people and only people with a lot of expendable money can collect them. Take note according to online resources, whiskey in unopened bottles usually last about ten years.

It is very important to take note when your collectible wine or alcohol will expire. Wines for example have different expiration dates. There are wines that could last for centuries and there are others that last only a few years before they expire.

If you are thinking about long time investment times, then it would be for example wise to have a look at cognac. Cognac can last indefinitely even when the bottle is opened. The taste of cognac in an open bottle would of course change, but the cognac itself would not expire.

Unlike money that is kept in a time deposit account, the value of certain wines and alcohols depreciate with time. This is especially true if you are not good at storing your wines and alcohols.

The best and most informative video I found about wine investing is from the YouTube Channel of How Money Works. Below is the link to his YouTube video:

YouTube Video: Is Investing in Wine Better than the Stock Market?

Perhaps one of the best information in the video is when he compared wine investing returns to the returns of investing in other forms of investment like the stock market. This part of the video is during the 4:37 and 5:34 minutes of the video.

Overall, the video is unlike many other videos about wine investing which is done by wine investing advisers. That is, the video does not aim to glorify wine investing as one of the best forms of investment.

What this video does proves, just like I have mentioned before, is that wine investing should only be done by people with deep pockets and who already have a lot of knowledge about wine to begin with.

But it should be noted that the wines which beat the stock market indices are the wines which are already expensive to begin with. Take note of this information whenever you’re deciding whether to invest in wines or in the stock market.

As can be seen, investing in cheap wines and alcohol won’t really make you a lot of money in the future. It is only the pedigreed and therefore expensive wines and alcohols that become collectible investments.

There is also the tools and knowledge needed in investing in wines and alcohols. You cannot just buy wines and alcohols and store them somewhere for years while you wait for their value to increase.

You need the proper storing tools and knowledge in order for you to successfully store your wine and alcohol investments. A person who is just renting a small apartment or unit will definitely not be able to store their collection of wine and alcohol properly.

Perhaps for these people, it is better to think of other forms of investments that don’t also require investment in tools and storage facilities. The people in my mind would be people who are just getting into investments.

One form of investment that has become very accommodating to amateur and beginner investors is stock market investing. A long time ago, banking and other finance organizations require investors to invest large amounts of money just to be able to participate in the stock market.

But times have changed, micro investment finance companies like Robinhood for example for US citizens have made investing in the stock market very easy. Amateur investors can invest as little as a few dollars in the stock market using these companies.

Even once prominent financial organizations which require their customers to invest large amounts of money have also followed the trend of micro investing. They are also now enabling their customer to trade with just a few dollars into the stock market.

Compare this to investing in wines and other alcohols and you see the obvious advantages of stock market investing over wine and alcohol investing. Stock market investing is really now more accessible to the average people as against wine and alcohol investing.

But let’s not forget the frenzy and the spectacular rise of US tech stocks and cryptocurrency. Bitcoin alone had enabled many cryptocurrency investors to more than increase the value of their portfolio several times over.

It is very difficult to invest in wine and alcohol if you are a beginner or amateur investor with limited funds. This is because the wines and alcohols that would truly increase in value are the pedigreed wines and alcohols which are expensive to buy to begin with.

Based from research and my own experience, there are more profitable and more reliable ways to use your investment money rather than using it to invest in wines and alcohols. Other forms of investments are safer, have better returns and do not usually degrade with time.

Making Money from Wine