“I have long been wary of the term ‘wine investment’. Over and above interest in buying great wines and building a cellar this request however has been leveled at me on an ever increasing scale in the last few years, and even now during the 'Credit Crunch'. As such I do have to take this seriously but as definitely secondary to buying the best wines to drink. I primarily focus on the great estates (“blue-chip” wines); from classic vintages; which will be consumed over the following years. With these fundamental factors I believe any possible investment potential (can go up and down) should likely take care of itself. As these classic wines are steadily consumed, by definition they become that bit more scarce with every passing day and the value historically has only ever gone in one direction, though recently some poorly chosen wines and some of the 1st Growths which were being targeted for investment only have begun to drop in their market value.

Basically, we do not look to indulge in wine as an invesment, but look to source classic wines, generally punching above their weight that whatever their market value up or down the contents remain undiminished in quality.

When building cellars, however, we are particularly selective. We offer “En Primeur” (That is buying futures of the great Bordeaux Châteaux whilst they are still in cask) but only in good to outstanding vintages. The big traditional merchants and brokers will offer most Bordeaux estates but I ruthlessly reduce my recommendations from perhaps a potential 300 wines to for instance 75 wines in the phenomenal 2005 vintage; and to 41 wines in the beautiful left-bank vintage of 2003; yet not a single red wine in 1997.