Uncharted Waters
Written By: Kasey Carpenter on Fri, Aug 10th 2007
You love German TBA’s. You go nuts over grower Champagnes. Washington State reds. Portuguese wines. All things Loire.
Can you collect these wines? Short answer is, yes you can. Can you turn a profit off of these wines? Short answer is, yes you can. But are they sound investments? Brevity says no.
Why not? Isn’t it true that an 1893 Schloss Reinhartshausen Erbacher Marcobrunn Trockenbeerenauslese is currently being sold for ten thousand dollars? Yes, but do you a) know where to find another and b) know someone willing to pay for it? And if you can find some, can’t you flip Vazart-Coquart, Godme, and Thierry Massin for a pretty respectable profit? Yes, if you buy low and find a willing buyer who isn’t hunting the same trails as you are. And what about Quilceda Creek? Vintage Port? What about Huet Vouvray that can age for decades? Especially the Moelleux? Again, it can be done. But you can also make money, in theory, selling anything that is way off the mainstream, provided you can hook up with the right circle of fans, of end-buyers.
This is where we again visit that fulcrum of balance, that point somewhere between profit and pleasure where you will inevitably buy with your heart and not with your head.
This is not a bad thing, as I have preached before.
I know this might not really fall under the heading of Wine Mogul per se, but I just want everyone concerned to know that the real joy in collecting is in the acquisition, not the parting. The hunt, the cornering of the fox - that is where the real thrill lies.
And you should always allow yourselves these hunts. Always. Cattle drivers relished the chance to hunt wild game while away on the trail for weeks at a time. Were those little hunts financially profitable? Rarely. Did the hunt distract from the greater good of driving cattle? Perhaps, but only for a moment. It was a temporary distraction.
When the everyday cattle-prod drive of finding the usual suspects in Bordeaux and other such regions becomes a grind, take a little break. A diversion, after all, can be a good thing.
All I’m saying is that while you may not make a killing off these little gems financially, you will no doubt stumble into areas of oenology you would have otherwise ignored, having placed your nose too close to the profit-driven grindstone.
I always caution people about being too singular in their pursuits, be they of the vine, financial, or otherwise.
So while we continue to look at the more tried and true regions of the globe for sound wine-based financial investments, over time we will stop the cattle drive and pop off a few rounds in the direction of some more interesting, perhaps more profitable (in the long run) bottlings from unexpected regions, varietals, and vintages, all for our betterment as investors and, more importantly, as people who love the art of wine.
