DUNBAR FINE WINE - The January 2003 Newsletter:

In view of all our recent publicity including coverage by Guardian Newspaper and appearances on HTV News and the 'Richard & Judy' show I thought I should make myself a little more visible to our visitors!!

The recent dips in stock markets performance have created considerable interest in alternative investment opportunities. Fine wine investment is now acknowledged as a strong option and I have been approached by several media in the last few months to contribute information, figures and forecasts. The last was on 4th February when I was asked on to the Richard and Judy show to discuss the benefits of fine wine investment with their resident financial consultant Ivan Massow.

Thanks to all those people who've found the site on the search engines. If you want to keep up to date with the latest information on wine investment please subscribe to our newsletter (see bottom of this page).

Check out our new service for our North American clients - Bordeaux Chateaux from legendary vintages at up to 35% off your local prices delivered to your door. Hard to believe? Well, take a look at the International page.

I have helped clients of Stanley Knight (who have gone into administrative receivership) recover their wine. If you need help, please call. I was somewhat perturbed though to see what they had paid for their wine. If in doubt about what you are buying, then please consult a professional.

As November draws to a close the FT100 languishes around the 4100 level, house price inflation show little sign of abating and there are record levels of personal debt. The Dow Jones is around 8500 and USA interest rates are at historical lows. There is also the quite real prospect of a war with Iraq, if the political commentators are correct. If there is a war, then apparently we will see a collapse in the oil price, as there will be the very real possibility of long-term oil exports from Iraq of up to 2 million barrels per day. The world today is a very uncertain place!

The predictions for the 2002 vintage around the world are very interesting, with excellent prospects from Burgundy, California and the Pacific North West, to variable for Bordeaux depending on whom you choose to believe. One thing is certain - it will NOT be a great year. Germany have again produced the goods with very upbeat reports but Port, the Rhone Valley and parts of Italy have had enormous disappointments, with some famous properties either producing no wine or it being bottled as generic wine.

The UK wine market has been fairly quiet during the last month, investors are nervous. The people who have been buying are those who knew what they want and there has been a surge in the formation of wine investment syndicates. I have seen people offloading wine for example 25 cases of Mouton Rothschild 2000 has just come onto the market, but if you want Latour 2000, Cheval Blanc 2000 or Margaux 2000, then you will do well to find some. I had some difficulty earlier this month finding Cheval Blanc 2000; eventually I got some at £3425 but prices range generally from £3650 to almost £4000!!

One bargain I found for clients this month was Château Beaucastel 1998 at £284 per case in bond delivered, the market price is a minimum of £400 and I have seen it on sale at over £500.

Lynch Bages 2000 is available in the UK at around £585 per case at well-known merchants but I have sourced it at just over the £500 mark for several clients, the price variation is huge. It all depends on what the merchant paid for it.

Another highlight this month has been the sale of some wine from a property that sits next door to Château Petrus, the quality is quite excellent and the wine world has not caught on to how the very astute Moueix operation are marketing this wine. I am sure that in the not too distant future many, many people will be kicking themselves for not having the foresight to purchase. Petrus 2000 sells for about £9,500 per case, up from an opening price of about £5,500, this wine is at about £800 per case and I will have access to some more soon in magnums. Call for details before it all disappears, there was just over 1000 cases made in 2000!

It will not be long before the 2000 clarets are shipped ex Bordeaux. However, be very careful, you are purchasing a promise to deliver, be wary, only buy from a well-respected source - this late in the en primeur cycle for the 2000's there can be many links in the supply chain, and all it takes is for one to fail and all you are left with is a piece of paper. There are many pitfalls for the unwary or the uninitiated, BE WARNED.

I not anticipated recommending 2000 Ports but I changed my mind, Taylors 2000 was better than I had thought so if you can find it, buy it.

Consider a case of fine wine as a Christmas present, to drink now or to be kept for the future when increased values can be realised.

As a result of the storms in France, I am absolutely certain that there will be a very serious retrospective look at previous vintages. For Bordeaux, that will be 2000, 1996, 1995, 1990, etc. We will have seen 2 years - 2001 and 2002 that are certainly not out of the top drawer, the truth be known - anything but! The problem is that stocks are low of the very best wines and prices are stable, and with a dearth of great wine for at least the next 2 years from Bordeaux, I feel that prices will go higher.

People who have purchased top class, investment quality wine during the past few years should feel very secure. If you had put money into the stock market 12 months ago - you would be looking at a loss of over 36% based on the fall of the Nasdaq 100 and a loss of over 23% if invested in the FT100. Some of my clients purchased Cheval Blanc 1982 on my advice less than 12 months ago and now are very happy with a growth of about 40% on their investment!!

Château Mouton Rothschild for the first time in over 50 years, the château has not asked a famous painter to create a label for its 2000 vintage.

Since 1945, bottles of the Bordeaux first growth have carried the original work of a celebrated painter on their labels - and become collector's items. But for the newly released 2000 vintage, château owner Baroness Philippine de Rothschild wanted to make the entire bottle a highly prized object (above).

An enamelled illustration of the gold-encrusted Augsburg Ram from the château's own Museum of Wine in Art was chosen to replace the traditional label. The ram-shaped silver-gilt drinking vessel dates from the 16th century and is the Mouton emblem. It was applied in relief by glassmakers BSN using a technique specially developed for the purpose.

The bottle itself is made from heavy black glass, with screen-printed gold letting. This includes the trademark signature of Baroness Rothschild. A golden ring around the black foil reproduces the design engraved on the ram's collar, and Château Mouton Rothschild is engraved in the base to guarantee authenticity.

It has been an exciting few weeks as I was selected by the award winning television news business editor Nick Partridge of HTV News (Wales and the West of England) to tell the viewers about the merits of wine investment. Not quite my first television interview, but most gratifying all the same.

A very well known and respected Professor from a Swiss university contacted me and requested that I assist him in the field of investment risk analysis. I will let you know of the outcome when all the numbers are crunched.

If you are looking for Fine Wine that is ready to drink, please consider the wines featured on the recommendations page, where you will be able to order quality wine at terrific prices supplied by some of the UK's finest wine merchants. To get the project off the ground I have chosen 5 wines that I think are great value and these are Dunbar Fine Wines Recommendations of the Month. The list may change during the month if a particular wine has sold out, or if there was little quantity to begin with. I want to see wine that I would want to drink, at a price that I think was remarkable value on the page, nothing less will do! You will be able to order quickly and safely. Let me know what you think and what you would like to see.

Whether you are a wine lover, an investor or indeed a bit of both - please do not delay. Interest rates are down and set to remain at historically low levels for the foreseeable future. Fine wine as part of a properly balanced portfolio of investment can be capable of offsetting troubled times in other financial areas, and the rewards are absolutely tax-free.

Call in to our website at http://dunbarfinewine.co.uk/investment.html to see for yourself how fine wine has historically been a first-class and consistent investment, when the wine is sourced from reliable suppliers and not some of the cowboys that have given our business problems in the past.

STOP PRESS: Click here for this month's selection of fine wines for purchase

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December 2001 Newsletter - click here
March 2002 Newsletter - click here
August 2002 Newsletter - click here
October 2002 Newsletter - click here