Chateau d’Yquem copyright: Gérard Uféras.

Château Lafite-Rothschild, the most highly tradedinvestment-grade wine in the world, produces an average13,000 cases per vintage. This capacity has to satisfyglobal demand and in the key market of China there areover one million millionaires with an appetite forBordeaux’s finest.

Peter Shakeshaft, Founder and CEO Vin-X Limited

Ten tips for profitable wine investment■ Be clear about your budget and wine investment

aims to ensure you create the best wine portfolio tosuit you

■ Invest in wines for the medium to long term

■ Acquire wines with high scores from trusted critics

■ Select wines that offer value and growth potential(don’t buy at the top of the market)

■ Build a robust and rewarding wine portfolio includingkey Bordeaux wines with mature secondary marketsand diversify into other regions carefully

■ Stay up to date with market news that may affectyour investment

■ When buying en primeur - only buy the best qualitywines at the right price

■ Protect your wine’s provenance and tax treatment bystoring in bond with a reputable specialist provider

■ Consult your tax advisor to take advantage of CGTexemption

■ Work with a trusted wine investment specialist forsafe, profitable wine investment

Fine wine can enhance yourinvestment portfolio

With a finite supply and increasing demand,

fine wine’s performance over the last 25

years has been significant with owners

seeing 1316% returns over the term (source:

Liv-ex Investables Index).

Of course, the market cannot be reduced to

one wine, one index and one headline

growth rate. One has to take a number of

factors into consideration; brand, vintage,

climate, ownership, etc. More investors are

looking at wine as an investment asset to

protect wealth and diversify portfolios. The

Knight Frank Wealth Report 2015 canvases

the opinions of 500 wealth managers and the

investment practices of their Ultra High Net

Worth clients, collectively worth

US$1.7trillion. The report stated that 6.1% of

this total investment is in tangible assets

including fine wine.

I got involved in the fine wine industry as a

result of my own experience having been a

collector of wine for a number of years. I had

come to realize that the growth in value of

my wine over time was outperforming my

equity investments. But my merchant wasn’t

providing any kind of information or direction

on buying wine as an asset.

With a twenty year-career in financial

services, I felt strongly that anyone that

owned fine wine would want to better

understand the performance and value of

their wine in a similar fashion to the owner of

shares in a company. With this proposition in

mind I founded Vin-X Limited in 2010 to help

anyone interested in owning fine wine as an

investment.

“As a new-comer to fine wineinvestment I was looking for apartner that was reputable, openand professional. The servicefrom Vin-X has exceeded myexpectations.” Curtis Davies: Professional footballer, Hull

City AFC and Vin-X Client

In the last five years since forming the

company there has been increasing media

focus on the treatment of fine wine as an

investment asset. Analysts, academics and

investment professionals report on the

employment of tangible assets such as fine

wine, art, vintage cars, property and other

alternative investments as being an

important component of a rounded

investment portfolio.

Modest returns from traditional investments

and financial products have driven pro-active

investors and their advisors to look at

alternative options to improve portfolio

performance and the new pension liberation

in Spring 2015 has certainly added

momentum to this.

Why Invest in fine wine?

PERFORMANCE – With a track record of

delivering average compound returns of

approximately 10% per annum over the

longer term, fine wine has outperformed

financial markets.

HEDGE AGAINST INFLATION AND

CURRENCY DEVALUATION – A tangible,

‘alternative’ asset, fine wine is proven to be a

stable investment; less volatile than financial

markets and equities and less susceptible to

adverse economic conditions. It may be

used as an effective hedge against

recession, and provide the means to

preserve wealth, as the price of wine tends

to increase with inflation. As a global

commodity it has obvious potential to

protect against negative currency

movements as well.

FINITE SUPPLY - The supply of investment-

grade wine is extremely limited, less than

one per cent of the world’s wine production,

with a growing global demand. The amount

of wine produced by the top wine estates

varies each vintage as a result of climate and

other influencing factors. There is also no

potential to reproduce or increase the supply

of any one vintage, unlike a company, which

can issue further shares.

REDUCING ASSET - As a wine reaches its

drinking window and starts to be consumed

rarity will increase further. Over time this

reducing supply and increasing demand

dynamic supports strong, stable price

performance.

TANGIBLE VALUE – Fine wine has an

inherent physical value, unlike stocks and

shares.

TAX EFFICIENCY – Capital Gains Tax is

generally not applied to any profit made on

the sale of fine wine. Please consult your tax

advisor accordingly.

DIVERSIFICATION – Fine wine’s asset

performance provides a means to diversify

investment portfolios

Vin-X is a leading wine investment specialist,

offering a portfolio management service

similar to a traditional stockbroker. Our team

has backgrounds in financial services and

the fine wine industry and helps private

clients, companies and other organisations

to build rewarding fine wine portfolios in line

with their investment goals.

“Their [alternative assets]performance tends not tofluctuate with that of stocks andbonds and they can hold theirvalue during periods ofexpected inflation. Theytherefore offer an alternativeform of portfolio diversificationacross assets and economiccycles.”Dr. Rachel Pownall, The Knight Frank Wealth

Report, 2013

Our drive to provide all investors with the

opportunity to invest safely in fine wine led

me to establish the WIA

(www.wineinvestmentassociation.org) with a

few other like-minded industry professionals

in 2013. The Association requires that all

members adopt a code of practice to protect

the interests of owners of fine wine. This

includes the requirement to undertake

independent audits to ensure their clients’

wines are correctly recorded and secure in

bonded storage. We take great pride in

being the first company to have achieved

this standard of excellence.

Ultimately, there is increasing global demand

for the finest wines in the world with new

consumers from the growth economies of

China, Russia, India and Brazil contributing

to the £2.5bn trade in fine wine every year.

The market is maturing to the extent that it

has some of the properties of the financial

markets, for example, an exchange (Liv-ex),

fund structures and specialist brokers.

With the back-drop of the need for more

personal responsibility for our pensions and

investments generally and an increasingly

sophisticated market, now, more than ever,

an investor in fine wine should be guided by

a trusted professional partner like Vin-X.

For more information on the services we

offer and how we can help you, please visit

www.vin-x.com where you can download

our FREE Guide to Wine Investment or call

0203 384 2262 to speak to a member of our

team.

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