Wine Basics
Wine Investing
Apr 24, 2025
The Southwold Group
Written whilst in Southwold!
My family and I are spending this Christmas in lovely Southwold.
Southwold is known for:
Being generally quite nice. The internet tells me it is sometimes referred to as “Hampstead-on-Sea”. I will choose to believe this is because Hampstead is also quite a nice place, and not due to the influx of Londoners wanting a seaside second home.
Adnams Brewery (recommend Kobold if you like lager and Broadside if you’re into ales)
Its relative isolation – it was historically almost an island, connected to the mainland only by a single road across the marshes.
Southwold is also an important word in the wine world.
The “Southwold Group” has tasted the top wines of Bordeaux together for over 40 years. This used to take place (no prizes for guessing) in Southwold, but it has now moved to Farr Vintners, where tasting happens in a purpose-built modern tasting room.
The tastings began when a group of prominent UK wine merchants and critics decided to create a systematic approach to evaluating Bordeaux vintages. They chose Southwold as their venue due to its removal from the commercial pressures of London and the wine trade’s usual haunts.
The Southwold Tastings are particularly important for several reasons:
First, they represent one of the most comprehensive evaluations of Bordeaux wines outside of France. The group typically tastes through 100-150 wines per session, covering all the major appellations and virtually every significant château.
Second, the collective experience of the tasters – who include leading merchants, critics, and writers – provides a unique perspective that combines commercial insight with technical expertise. This combination has proven invaluable in predicting how wines will develop and perform in the market.
Third, the timing of the tastings, several years after the vintage, offers a more measured view than the frenzied en primeur tastings that occur when the wines are still in barrel.
From an outsider’s perspective, I think the third point is the real beauty behind the Southwold tastings.
They represent something increasingly rare in today’s world: a long-standing tradition that prioritises careful, considered evaluation over immediate judgement.
We live in an era of instant opinions and rapid-fire social media reactions, an entire vintage can be discarded as meaningless, or put on a pedestal based on a few weeks of in barrel tastings.
Reasons why the above is true which may be hard for Bordeaux to admit
Bordeaux needs proponents. To caveat this, I definitely view this through more of an ‘investment lens’ than most. It cannot however be denied that the most recent En Primeur campaign(s) did not work for most Chateaux. Having a group of the most high-profile critics and merchants shining a (relatively) unbiased light on the great wines from recent vintages gives drinkers and collectors the impetus to identify, and (more importantly) buy Bordelaise wine.
Bordeaux needs wine investors. Sara Danese, CFA wrote a great article about this. It’s linked here, and I’ll post an excerpt below.
“Investors, collectors, and people who buy wine En Primeur are essentially financing the châteaux. Without the EP system, châteaux would need to go to a bank and borrow all the costs to grow and make that wine against, say, a 10% interest rate until the wine is ready to be sold.”
“Some can survive without it, but many cannot.”
For fine wine investors to be interested in Bordeaux, the wines must have two key characteristics. They need to be sold at a price which allows room for upwards movement, and there needs to be continued demand for back vintages of Bordeaux. The first point is down to the Chateaux, the second is driven by people like the Southwold Group.
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Wine Basics
Wine Investing
10 Aug 2025
When is the Best Time to Invest in Fine Wine?
The fine wine market has always been a blend of passion and performance. For some, the allure lies in the artistry of the vineyard; for others, it’s the steady, tangible returns that make fine wine a compelling alternative asset.
But here’s the perennial question for investors: when is the right time to invest?
In our latest analysis at WineFi, we examined one of the most sought-after segments of the market—red Burgundy—to see how timing influences returns. We compared all red Burgundy wines in our investment universe to the Liv-ex Burgundy 150 index, the sector’s benchmark, and looked for patterns that could guide smarter entry and exit strategies.
The Findings at a Glance
Our data paints a clear picture of how red Burgundy performs at different stages of its lifecycle:
🚫 Don’t buy on release – On average, red Burgundy underperforms its benchmark in the first few years after release. That means paying top prices straight out of the gate often isn’t the best move for returns-focused investors.
🎯 Sweet spot: Year 6 – Performance begins to accelerate around the sixth year—coinciding with the median start of the wine’s drinking window. From here, returns tend to outpace the benchmark.
📈 Outperformance window: Years 6–25 – During this period, red Burgundy has historically delivered impressive relative gains. By year 25, the mean return in our dataset was 1.8x higher than the benchmark.
⚠️ After year 25: A trickier game – Performance tends to plateau, and volatility increases. As bottles become rarer and more valuable, prices can swing sharply in either direction. This aligns with the median end of red Burgundy’s drinking window, when investment and consumption dynamics shift.
Why This Matters for Investors
Fine wine, unlike many asset classes, is both finite and consumable. Every bottle opened reduces supply, creating scarcity—but also introducing unpredictability as remaining stock becomes fragmented across cellars worldwide.
By aligning purchases with a wine’s drinking window, investors can:
Maximise potential upside by entering when market demand is strengthening.
Reduce downside risk by avoiding the softer performance often seen in the early years.
Plan exits strategically before volatility overtakes predictable growth.
The Limits (and Power) of the Data
While this study looks at the mean performance of all red Burgundy wines in our universe, individual results will vary significantly by producer, vintage, and even format (bottle size). Legendary producers like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti may defy these trends altogether, while lesser-known estates might follow them more closely.
Still, using drinking windows as a timing tool offers a practical framework for making better-informed decisions—especially for investors building diversified portfolios across regions and styles.
Final Pour
The data tells us that patience pays in fine wine investment—particularly in Burgundy. If you can resist the urge to buy on release and instead enter around year six, history suggests you’ll be swimming with the current rather than against it.
In fine wine, as in life, timing is everything. And for Burgundy lovers, that sixth-year mark might just be the moment when the stars—and the corks—align.
Wine Basics
Wine Investing
14 Jul 2025
WineFi Q2 2025 Quarterly Report
In Q2 2025, we have seen a stabilisation in wine market prices. In this quarterly report we dive into this finding to understand how list prices compare to trade prices, along with macro-analysis and regional comparisons.
In this edition, we explore:
🏦 Macroeconomic Analysis and the Effect on Wine Markets
📈 How Wine Compares to Other Assets
⚖️ Wine Market Stabilisation?
🔀 List Prices vs Trade Prices
🌍 Regional Performance Breakdown
Wine Basics
Wine Investing
24 Apr 2025
WineFi Q1 2025 Quarterly Report
We’re pleased to share our Q1 2025 Quarterly Report, offering a concise, data-driven overview of fine wine’s performance in the first quarter of the year. As macroeconomic pressures persist and traditional markets continue to fluctuate, fine wine’s role as an alternative asset class remains in sharp focus.
In this edition, we explore:
🏦 Macroeconomic Analysis and the Effect on Wine Markets
📈 How Wine Compares to Other Assets
⚖️ Wine Market Stabilisation?
🌍 Regional Performance Breakdown
