Investing in Wine

uberteeb

Good evening folks, I come seeking some advice regarding investing in fine wine, first off a bit about my situation.

As of now I have about £1,000 a month to save with the aim of getting myelf up to around £10k by August/September next year for a house deposit. I have absolutely no experience of investments. I made the fatal mistake of entertaining a broker who phoned me last week and I've just had the follow up call. As yet I have comitted to nothing.

My question is would anyone recommend investing in 'fine wine' through a brokerage to achieve my goal? It looks like a reasonable investment but even the brokers own literature talks about medium to long term investments. Unsurprisingly there was 'a great deal for me' (the short term investor) tonight, getting a case of £1,200 wine for £1,060 with an insurance fee and bond warehouse fee coming in around £20. There are no more fees up front, they take 10% of the profit when I sell on, nothing else. The wine is held in my name so if their company goes belly up I still have the wine (although this wine merchant has been going for 25+ years). It takes 3-4 weeks to withdraw my investment when I need it for my flat/house deposit. I've been assured 15-20% p/a is a pessimistic prediction.

So would you punt for this case and see how it goes? Would you invest elsewhere? Would you go for the safe ISA instead?

Also, with my next months saving would you go for another case, do the same the following month and so on and so on?

I've scowled the internet and the wine market seems rosy but it does seem more long term than what I'm looking for. I've also had a look and search round this site and haven't found anything so apologies if this has already been discussed. I'm getting a call back in a couple of days while I 'mull it over'. I'm not a regular contributor to these forums but read them regularly so I know there are a lot of knowledgeable people out there.

Thanks for any advice.

Lokolo

So someone cold called you saying there is a brilliant investment where you can make top dollar (excuse the pun) over the course of the next 10 months even though its a medium long term investment with no gaurentees?

Reaper

There are a lot of wine scams out there. You can normally spot the dodgy ones because they cold call you.

Tell us the name of your broker, maybe it is a respectable one, but based on what you have said - probably not.

turbobob

uberteeb wrote: »

As of now I have about £1,000 a month to save with the aim of getting myelf up to around £10k by August/September next year for a house deposit. I have absolutely no experience of investments. I made the fatal mistake of entertaining a broker who phoned me last week and I've just had the follow up call. As yet I have comitted to nothing.

My question is would anyone recommend investing in 'fine wine' through a brokerage to achieve my goal?

No - absolutely not. Have a look on somewhere like Moneyfacts.co.uk and find a suitable deposit account (and yes consider using your cash ISA allowance).

uberteeb

Thanks for the advice, please feel free to expand or add anything else.

The broker is European Fine Wines Ltd - https://www.efwines.com

uberteeb

Reaper wrote: »

There are a lot of wine scams out there. You can normally spot the dodgy ones because they cold call you.

Tell us the name of your broker, maybe it is a respectable one, but based on what you have said - probably not.

Thank you VERY much for that website, very good reading, looks like I'll be giving this a body swerve.

Unless anyone wants to share some successes in this sector? Then again the lack of comment on wine investing on this website problably says all you need to know, ie. the only wine you should be ivnesting in is the 3 for a tenner at Asda :beer:

dzug1

Have a read of http://www.investdrinks.org/claretweb.htm - it will justify your decision to avoid this company.

The retail sale of wine investment to the UK public is invariably a rip off, if not an out and out scam. It's not a way of making certain money, any more than the stock market is. When you start off paying well over the odds (as you will with this company) in a possibly falling market, you don't stand a chance.

Edit - oops same website as reaper. But worth reiterating the message

Generali

It's a terrible investment, steer clear.

sleepless_saver

If you really wanted to invest in wine, you could consider investing in a wine fund which is regulated by the FSA, instead of buying the actual wine which is an unregulated activity.

But I think most advisers would say that "fun" investments like wine, art or classic cars should only ever form a small part of an investment portfolio.

Reaper

uberteeb wrote: »

Unless anyone wants to share some successes in this sector? Then again the lack of comment on wine investing on this website problably says all you need to know, ie. the only wine you should be ivnesting in is the 3 for a tenner at Asda :beer:

There are other wine threads on this forum. Here is a recent one about your potential broker, European Fine Wines. And yes, cheap Christmas booze deals are a much safer bet!

Primrose

So you want to save £10,000 by next August for a house deposit? I think you're rather taking your eye of the ball here. This is short term saving you're talking about and investing in wine is definitely a longer term project, and one for somebody who has a reasonable cash savings amount behind them first. You're not going to be able to cash in an investment like this at short notice and even if a wine investment programme is not a scam, you could still find yourself losing money. Ignore all the fancy salesman talk and if you're a taxpayer, consider first the best rate cash ISA you can find. Also look at some regular saver accounts which may pay better interest. You can have more than one of them.
If you're interested in wine, treat yourself to a few bottles of Waitrose Good Ordinary Claret at under £5 a bottle, and drink them slowly while you watch your safely mounting cash savings build up until you reach your £10,000 target.