Investment analysis: SuperTuscans and Barolos

As Bordeaux’s pricing woes continue, interest in Italy as a fine wine investment vehicle grows, with SuperTuscans and Barolos leading the way. Ella Lister analyses the hot prospects

Investment analysis: Relative SuperTuscan pricing

Masseto commands an average market price of more than £400 per bottle for the last 10 available vintages, over four times that of the other top SuperTuscans, and more than some Bordeaux first growths. This is despite there being little difference in critics’ scores for the different wines, especially between Masseto and Ornellaia, both made by Axel Heinz. Ornellaia thus seems to represent relative value, and certain minor vintages in particular.

Masseto’s average price has quintupled over the last decade. Heinz believes it will continue its upwards trajectory, as ‘there are only about 30,000 bottles for the world with an ever increasing demand’. However, WAM’s Miles Davis says it is ‘too expensive’, which is why it doesn’t feature in his wine fund portfolios. ‘We may have got it wrong,’ he accepts, but Masseto’s prices have indeed flattened out over the last year, and even dropped a little.

However, many SuperTuscans still represent good value relative to Bordeaux, at less than half the price of first growths. ‘Certainly one reason why people are starting to be more interested in buying SuperTuscans as an investment is the high prices of Bordeaux,’ says Antinori. His flagship wine, Solaia, is the next priciest SuperTuscan after Masseto, and is also sold via Bordeaux négociants, but has underperformed, rising only 29% over 10 years.

Tignanello, its less expensive older brother, has fared better, rising in price by 157%. It still costs only £58, due to higher volumes and slightly lower critics’ scores than its peers.

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Ella Lister is the founder and CEO of Wine Lister, a fine wine rating platform with a 1,000-point rating system. She is also a well-respected wine writer, fine wine market analyst and consultant. In 2009, she left her job as an investment banker at Lazard in London to begin writing about wine. Aside from Decanter, she has written for The World of Fine Wine and the Financial Times. She was Fine Wine Strategy consultant for Octavian from 2011 to 2015.