I would NEVER suggest anyone invests in anything, let alone wine, without a THOROUGH knowledge of what they are getting into. Despite my reasonable levels of knowledge about wine in general, one area I really do not feel I know at all well, is Fine Wine. But there are plenty who (think they) do.

It used to be the kinds of wines that most people simply couldn’t afford, and the rich bought, stored in their country houses’ cellars to drink after their retirement. However, Fine Wine, and in particular Bordeaux, has become a ‘market’ – a commodity to be bought and sold purely for investment purposes.

In these difficult financial times, is it a better, or worse time, to get involved in this?

I have no idea.

However, someone thinks they do, and he has a radio programme dedicated to Wine tomorrow, so if you are interested, check out Alvin Hall’s World of Money: Wine tomorrow, 26 July, 2008 at 12:04 on BBC Radio 4 (or Monday, 28th July at 15:02 for a longer version, apparently).

For those not in the UK, this is during a programme called MoneyBox which is available after the fact as a podcast.

[UPDATE: The BBC have added some further interesting content related to the show here. Not an answer to the question, but further background and interesting quotes]