In this edition of The Wine Investing Newsletter we will focus on what not to do when investing in wine.

• Do not buy anything that isn't stored in bond, and don't take anything you may want to sell out of bond.

If a wine has been stored in bond then it has been stored in conditions conducive to successful aging. You can be confident that it's not been stored in someone's boiler cupboard or by the fire. You can also have more confidence around the provenance of the wine.

The person you want to sell the wine to will appreciate these facts.

• Do not buy a wine without learning about condition, and provenance.

If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Most sellers will provide some details on these two criteria. If they don't, ask them.

Side note: ask about fees too!

• Do not take the quality of the wine as a surefire sign that it's a great investment.

There is a threshold below which there is unlikely to be secondary market demand for a wine.

There are also great wines that are great investments.

That being said, there are also great wines that are bad investments, especially at the price points we've seen recently (cough Bordeaux cough).

There are also wines at a level or two below 'elite' which have out-returned those considered 'elite' over a statistically significant period.

Value>Critic Scores.

• Do not buy wines without secondary market liquidity.

There are wines for which it could be reported that price has increased 200% in 5 years.

There are a number of liquidity-related reasons why this may not be as good as it seems.

The producer could be increasing their release price, but no one has ever bought the wine on the secondary market.

The wine may have traded once 5 years ago, and once now. If you're happy with waiting 5 years from the point at which you want to sell it, this is fine. If you (understandably) would rather avoid that, then liquidity must be taken into account.

• Do not drink the wine!