Investing In Champagne
Champagne vs wine
Champagne is a white sparkling wine. It gets its fizz from a second fermentation which occurs in the bottle itself. Champagne tends to have a shorter shelf life than non-sparkling fine wines. Vintages can lose their bubbles and tend to last 15-20 years compared with 30+ years for Bordeaux wines. Jay-Z teamed up with the Cartier family to create a Champagne brand called Ace of Spades. Bottles cost $1,000 and only 3,535 bottles were produced. The asset class has been delivering steady positive returns over the past decade. There is a strong correlation between the price of Champagne and its age. As time passes, the available supply becomes more scarce and the value of each bottle normally increases.
Collectors and investors must, however, pay special attention to the type of Champagne and producer. Due to the lower production quantities, only vintage Champagnes are normally considered for investment purposes. Experts and producers unanimously predict that Champagne prices will rise at a higher rate over the next 10 years than we have been used to in the past. As with any investment, there is no guarantee that past performance will continue, but the less efficient nature of alternative investments presents opportunities for the savvy investor and the Champagne market certainly looks like it has room to keep on fizzing.