Wine provided investors with the best returns of 2001, according to a recent FT report. It led modern art, photography and other alternative investments in outperforming traditional stocks and shares.

Wine outperformed the Standard & Poor’s Index – widely regarded as the benchmark for US stock market performance – by 92 per cent; while American modern art and photography saw gains of 85 per cent and 65 per cent above those of standard stocks.

But wine didn’t just take the top spot in 2001 – it has beaten the S&P index every year since 1997, making it one of the most stable bets in the investor’s portfolio.

Not surprisingly, opportunities for wine investment have proliferated and online sales have grown exponentially in the wake of the highly successful Bordeaux 2000 vintage, which was released en primeur last year. Online exchanges, such as Uvine.com, as well as merchants’ own sites have made it easier for investors to buy bluechip wines. In addition, sites such as decanter.com‘s Fine Wine Tracker and the online trading floor WorldwineXchange.com offer an easy way to track the performance of the wines.

Those who want to cash in on the boom in the fine wine market, but feel that they lack the knowledge to make wise investments can now put their capital into one of the funds that have been set up to take advantage of the growing market. Those with at least €25,000 (£16,000) to spare can invest in the AWM Fine Wine Fund, an offshore fund that invests in Bordeaux, Burgundy and New World shares, while the ‘Premier Cru’ fund of Société Générale Asset Management focuses on venture capital.

Written by Liz Hughes

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Liz Hughes
Liz Hughes
Decanter.com, Journalist

Liz Hughes wrote several wine news stories for Decanter.com, between the years of 2001 and 2004. She covered various aspects of the global wine scene, including stories about Mouton Rothschild and Robert Parker, plus market coverage of Bordeaux First Growth price releases and reports that wine offered the best investment returns in 2001.