"Invest in wine. Bad luck, you'll buy it” Gianni Agnelli once said. Were he still with us, the Avvocato would be surprised to discover that the yields of some labels are so high as to advise against opening them immediately. Let's take the 1990 by Romanée-Conti, a champion among Burgundy pinot noirs: if in 2000 the price was around two thousand euros per bottle, today there are those who are willing to pay more than twenty thousand to secure one.
They did it in November some wealthy Chinese collectors at public auctions in Hong Kong (eight important ones were held), but also in New York, London, Geneva, Paris and other European markets. And this shouldn't be surprising, because when we talk about Bordeaux premieres crus – those of the Chateau Latour, Lafite, Margaux, Haut-Brion and Mouton, according to the classification dating back to 1855 – or of the more complex Burgundy reds, we are dealing with goods with a double connotation: they are luxurious and at the same time a refuge.
“Dynamic demand, limited supply and, what's more, people drink them over time. Therefore they become even rarer and since they are long-lived products, their quality increases”, they explain Averardo Borghini Baldovinetti and Marco Clerici, respectively international director and general manager of the Vino e Finanza company, which manages the Nobles Crus fund specialized in this particular sector.
Of that "legendary" Romanée-Conti 1990 the fund, a Luxembourg Sicav which attracts institutional investors (including banks and pension funds) like collectors and private savers eager to diversify their portfolios, holds 50 bottles: a large figure, considering that the domaine of the village of Vosne-Romanée produced about six thousand of that vintage. two-thirds already uncorked. In 2008, while Lehman Brothers sank dragging half the world's securities with it, the yield of Nobles Crus was traveling at +20%. The following two years were also positive, with an increase of 10% in 2009 and 13% in 2010.
But investment wines have turned out also immune to the spread and sovereign debt crisis, closing 2011 with around 10% assets. Thanks above all to the new markets. Driven by the Hong Kong auctions, Asia has become the first international buyer of the so-called Igw (investment grade wines), overtaking the United States in the rankings, which had dominated the market for twenty years, and relegating the podium that Europe which, with its rich London and Parisian collectors (without forgetting the Germans, Swiss and some Italians) created the very concept of wine as a safe haven. Now, however, China and Hong Kong, according to data from the CIVB (Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Provence) absorb around 60% of Bordeaux exports.
There are textbook cases like that of Chateau Lafite, owned by the Rothschild family, which for the Chinese is the top wine par excellence, thanks to a favorable combination of factors: it was the first premiere cru to focus with conviction on the Asian market, it has no rivals in terms of brand and history, it has sufficient quantities (180 bottles a year against, for example, the 36 of Chateau Petrus) to accommodate their requests. Finally, and not a secondary detail, his brand is easily pronounceable even for a citizen of Beijing, who would find himself in difficulty with too many "r"s of the various Margaux or Haut-Brion.
The opportunity to create Nobles Crus presented itself in 2007, when Luxembourg law authorized the creation of alternative funds: there were those who took advantage of it to launch themselves into art or other goods of increasing value over time and those who, like Borghini Baldovinetti (producer in Tuscany with the Fattoria San Fabiano) and Clerici, joined the French Christian Roger, a man with twenty years of experience in the financial sector, combining passion and profession. Roger is also a producer, in fact his wife owns the Morgassi Superiore winery in Piedmont.
However, passion must not prevail over logic, which must be respected when investments are involved. And here then is that when it comes to wines to focus on, the domain is inevitably from beyond the Alps: 50% comes from Burgundy and 48% from the Bordeaux area. Italy is left with the crumbs: 0,6% Tuscany, 0,5% Piedmont. The rest, a very marginal 1%, is shared by the United States, Spain and Australia. “In Italy”, explain the managers of the fund, “there are many great wines, but few are those for investment. Probably in the future the share of our country is destined to increase, while bearing in mind that the Chinese, initially linked to Bordeaux and in particular to Lafite alone, are only now approaching the more prestigious wines of Burgundy and therefore will take a little time to accept the Italian ones too”.
When does a great wine become an investment asset? “When it has some essential characteristics” answer Clerici and Borghini Baldovinetti. First: must be long-lived, because if a great wine does not improve with age it will never be taken into consideration. Second: constancy, because investors don't trust companies with mixed results. Third: the brand and the recognition not only of the brand, but also of the area from which it comes. Fourth and last: the rarity, because there are excellent wines that produce a million bottles a year and large numbers determine the inevitable loss of attractiveness. In any case, there are labels such as the memorable 1985 of Sassicaia (Tenuta San Guido, Tuscany), several vintages of Masseto (Ornellaia, Tuscany) and a couple of Monfortino di Giacomo Conterno (Barolo, Piedmont) that they can share with the more prestigious Lafite, Latour, Mouton and Romanée-Conti have space in the table of best performers, wines to invest in now and in the future.
“Bearing however in mind”, specify from Vino e Finanza, “that Italian wines show an interesting evolution in value in the first few years, to then settle down without further progress. A 1990 Monfortino can reach 700 euros a bottle but it is very unlikely that it will grow to touch the thousands of euros. Instead, we had bought the Romaneè Conti 2006 for 3 and we thought we had paid dearly for it. Today it is worth over 7 thousand. This is the main difference between France and the rest of the world”. Finally, several "new" areas are under observation. The main ones are two territories with a great tradition such as the Mosel for Riesling, in Germany, and the north of Portugal for the Port: they are promising, like the area of Avellino for Taurasi and Etna for the enormous potential of its wines lava, obtained starting from that ancient native vine which takes the name of Nerello Mascalese. Certainly they will never reach the twenty thousand euros of certain French labels, but it matters little to fund managers: who, to use a term in vogue, rather than the absolute value, pay attention to the "spread".
