Fine Wine in a Buyers’ Market: Is Now the Time to Buy?

The global bearishness of the fine wine market has been unprecedented. Not even the most senior wine merchants have ever seen such a pronounced contraction and dearth of liquidity.

And there has been much talk of the future, with a great deal of soul-searching going on in the trade. From where will our market come further down the road? Should we be doing things differently? And, of course, will prices ever regain their pre-crash levels?

With every recession — and in wine terms, this clearly is a recession — the doom-mongers will proclaim the end of days. But is their negativity warranted, we wonder?

Are there green shoots?

We are beginning to perceive what might be the first green shoots: a modest uptick in interest among those who have evidently decided that we are at — or near — the bottom of the downswing. We have seen a minor lift in attention from Asian markets, with some discounted (but still high-value) broking wines being snapped up.

The Sage of Omaha asserts that investors should be bold when others are nervous, and vice versa. So is now the time for some careful targeting of deeply discounted blue-chip stocks?

Top clarets and beyond

Top clarets are well off the boil, price-wise. And we have seen heavily slashed tickets in other regions, too.

Bowes Wine has an extensive and growing list of broking wines, with many offer prices cut to reflect current market conditions.

Mature wine at today’s prices

There is another reason to take a look. Some of these wines are now entering their drinking window. In other words, you can buy perfectly-stored, mature wine at today’s depressed prices — and actually enjoy it now, rather than waiting another decade for the opportunity.

Is it time to seize the moment?

A degree of carpe diem may be in order.

That’s very much up to you. But it strikes us that we are now in more of a buyers’ market than we were, say, in the early 2010s, when claret was being offered at prices that represented record highs.

Nobody can say with certainty when the market will turn. But you don’t necessarily need to call the bottom to find value in a bottle that is well priced, well stored and ready to drink.

So take a browse. But if you’d like some direction, do get in touch with Caspar.