The first talk at the Smart Expo that I attended was delivered by Saeed Shah, the sales director of Australian Wine Index (AWI).
Australian Wine Index is a fine wine broker which sources and purchases fine Australian wine for investors. They will also help to find suitable storage space for your wine, and advise you on different exit strategies when the time is ripe.
The reasons given by Saeed why we should invest in wine include:
- Wine has outperformed other investments.
- Recent UK report by Wine Asset Managers (WAM)
- Return of 16% over last 7 years
- Wine is a relatively low risk investment.
- Finite commodity
- Limited supply & growing demand
- There is huge growth potential.
- US no.1 wine consumption market in the world
- China 45% growth over the next 10 years
- Global demand
- Auction houses: Christie’s & Sotheby
- “Nuevo Riche” in emerging marketings like China, Russia, Eastern Europe
Wine is an area that I haven’t invested in before as it is something not close to my heart. Even though I was told that I don’t have to be a wine drinker to be an investor, somehow I feel that I would be at a disadvantage when it comes to the product knowledge.
So how exactly do you invest in wine? These are the steps shared with us:
- Selection
- Storage
- Trading
1) Wine selection
- Ratings (Critics) – RPJ’s Wine Advocate
- Regions – South Australia & Margaret River
- Vintage, Vintage and Vintage
- Research
- Strong ties with vineyards
- Build collections with intrinsic value
2) Wine storage
- Home storage – bad idea
- Perishable product
- AWI has a tie-up with Cougar Express Logistics whereby investors can store their wines and have their own individual account
3) Trading
- Exit strategies – Friends, collectors, merchants
- Auctions offer best option
I can’t really elaborate on the points given in the presentation by Australian Wine Index as I’m pretty much a novice when it comes to wine investment.