There are lots of great wines out there, but what is the magic behind those being sold off at auction for thousands of euros a piece? Are they really much better than the fine wines we can easily attain in the €20-€50 price bracket for example? What is it that makes them stand out from other wines, and can they not simply be replicated elsewhere and sold off at a much more sane price?

The world’s most expensive white wine was sold for £75,000 in London during the summer. It was a 200-year-old bottle of Château d’Yquem, which has extraordinarily long aging ability due its high concentration of sugar. Here’s what the buyer, French private collector Christian Vanneque, had to say:

“This wine is very special – it is attached to the most renowned white wine in the world, and it was produced in the year of the Great Comet, which was believed to enhance the quality of the wine,”

Extract sourced from theguardian.co.uk

See I thought he was just bonkers paying that until he mentioned the Great Comet. Makes much more sense now. He went on to say that it was bought to be enjoyed, not as an investment opportunity.

So apart from comets, what really makes a truly great wine great? There’s no hiding that the prestige of the brand behind these wines goes to massively inflate prices and exaggerate value. And remember when you’re paying £75,000 for a single bottle, you’re playing with the big boys. Enthused collectors with huge financial muscle, obviously. But prestigious brands can’t just crop up from anywhere. These wineries have incredibly unique terroir – that is the land they grow their vines on – as well as the necessary expertise to get the best out of the land.

Once a winery or a simple farmer has the fortune of inheriting this very ‘special’ land, the hard work is done. Think of it as winning the lottery. Now the task is relatively simple. Don’t mess it up. Don’t play around. Keep it simple and let the terroir do the talking.

Petrus is a case in point. This is genuine investment stuff, with single bottles selling between €2,000 and €3,000 depending on the vintage. From a winemaking perspective, it’s fairly standard procedure. The pressed wine develops in concrete vats and is then transferred to new oak barrels for twenty months of aging. These barrels have been washed beforehand so the wine is not made too tannic or woody.

“If you ask me about winemaking techniques, I have not much to tell. Everything is here (pointing to his head) and particularly there (pointing to the vineyard).”

Olivier Berrouet, Petrus winemaker (winesur.com)

If there are any secrets behind the greats of the wine world, they can only be found in the vineyard. At least that’s what the French will say. One might argue differently in the New World.

Imaging not having enough room to store your grand wine collection and having to flog it off to China. What a pain. That’s what Lord Lloyd Webber had to do this month, except it wasn’t quite as painful as you might think, fetching a tidy £3.5 million (over 4 million euro) in the process.

The man who made his fortune through his amazing musicals had been collecting top end bottles since his student days, having fine vintages delivered to his Westminster school. With his success and wealth from a relatively early age he has obviously had time to build quite a collection. The most expensive bottle, a magnum 1990 Domaine de la Romanée Conti, sold for £17,460, while the priciest standard-sized bottle, a 2002 Domaine de la Romanée Conti, sold for £8400 each (he had three of them).

The sale was held by Sotheby’s at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and featured nearly 9000 bottles of classic French wines, including what experts regard as the finest white Burgundies ever for sale in the region. The most expensive lot in the sale was a case of Chateau Petrus 1982, which sold for £48,500, or more than £4000 a bottle. This isn’t the first time he’s done this either. He broke the world auction record in 2007 when Sotheby’s held a two-day sale in London of 18,000 bottles from his collection, landing him £3.7 million.

As I wonder how serious you can treat wine as an investment opportunity during a worldwide recession, and how much my single bottle of ’06 Amon Ra will fetch me in thirty years time, I think of how China have come such a long way in recent times. There’s obviously money there among the high society anyway, but still, the fact they are willing to part with so much of it for a few bottles of wine reinforces Asia’s growing market.

In fairness, there are worse people in the world you could see this wealth go to. Lloyd Webber has a good track record when it comes to charity. And he does write some damn fine music.

Would you pay $24,000 for a half case of Petrus 2000? What about a single bottle of 1990 Grands Echezeaux valued at $4,000? Ah come on, that’s a bargain! Well, certainly some seem to think so, even if you and I don’t. By the way, that $4,000 Grands Echezeaux was bought for $250 in 1990. Even with inflation, that’s a pretty good return, particularly if you end up buying a case or two.

Collecting wine is a pretty serious business, but then you really have to know what you’re doing. Reputable collectors can fetch this kind of money because they have the knowledge on what wines will be age worthy, and more to the point, what wines will be worth something in the future. I’ve heard a number of stories of people with more money than sense, paying extortionate prices for wines worth pennies because they haven’t done their homework, or they just didn’t know any better.

I, like many of us, haven’t got a spare $24,000 lying around, so I’m perfectly happy to keep my half case of Amon-Ra under the stairs for another 15 years or so. Fear not, it will be drank, and damn sure I won’t be putting it up for auction.

Here’s a few more shocking collectables:

• Petrus Pomerol 1989 estimated to be worth $3,000 (original paid: $250)
• Grand Vin de Chateau Latour 1982 estimated to be worth $1,500 (original paid $80-90)
• Screaming Eagle 1996 (California) estimated to be worth $1,500 (original paid $250)
• Romanee Conti 1999 (Burgundy) The pre-auction estimate is between $7,000 and $9,000 (A 21% buyer’s premium could put the total over $10,000). Only about 6,000 bottles produced.

Facts and figures sourced from CNBC.com. View original post/slide show here.

Amon-Ra a better bet than the stock market?

It’s with good reason that I find myself writing about Bordeaux, so soon after last weeks post on Gordon Ramsay’s choice wines from Chateau Bauduc. It has aroused some discussion among Curious customers, making it more obvious than ever before of how highly people rate wine of this appellation. And it’s the 2005 vintage that’s been getting all the hype. But why?

Quite simply, 2005 proved to be one of those exceptional years, producing almost perfect conditions for grape growing, leading to better wine than in an average Bordeaux year, hence why it’s been the talk of wine lovers for the best part of four years. And it’s these wines you should be considering for the future.

Lay them down and drink years later for a fantastically different and an even better drinking experience. There are wines available that have been set aside already from the last decade, or before, but expect to pay a premium. Laying wine down yourself is the most economical way to do it, the only disadvantage of course being the wait. You will need patience and the willpower not to drink it too early.

Not all wines are suitable for aging and experts will determine very early on what kind of aging potential a wine has. Most, including many that you may consider expensive, are to be drank young. So when you’re choosing wines to lay down, ask your wine merchant which he or she recommends and when it will reach its peak. When you’re storing it, make sure it’s laid down on its side (to protect the cork) in a cool, dark place where the temperature will not fluctuate too much.

If you’re keen to bury a little treasure for the future, Chateau Reignac is our number one pick from Bordeaux. Due to peak around 2013, we dare you to come back to us in four years time and tell us that it wasn’t one of the best wines you ever tasted. A snip at €19.99, and even better with an extra 15% off in our Bordeaux sale, we’re going to be keeping a few wonder kids for ourselves, with Chateau Reignac being top of the list.

If you need any further recommendations or advice on wines for the future, feel free to get in touch via e-mail or phone. Promise we won’t bite…

With the property market going bang and Bank of Ireland shares being worth about as much as a penny chew, it’s time for investors to revise their portfolios. If anyone watched “Beat the Bank” with Duncan Bannatyne on BBC2 it would seem that some of the best investments come in the form of art and, yes… wine!

This made us think about Aussie icon, Amon-Ra, which received a perfect score from America’s and arguably the world’s most worthy wine critic, Robert Parker. Set to be fully evolved by around 2025, this red powerhouse will most likely drink through 2040. It would only be speculation to imagine how much it will be worth by 2025 or 2030, but it’s hard to imagine it going any way but up, whereas the FTSE and NASDAQ….?

What a great way to secure your future. While markets go into turmoil, houses become worthless and banks begin to crumble around us, we can sleep soundly at night knowing that Glaetzer’s Gold is looking after us from afar.

Amon, sorry Amen, to that.