Forget Oil and Gold, Buy Wine

2010-12-05 15:07:00 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - News Providers News)

EINNEWS, December 3—Tough economic times may be keeping consumers’ hands on their wallets in the U.S. and Europe, but things look decidedly different in China, where consumers have developed a taste for fine wine and are pushing up prices.
Worldwide, the price of wine has jumped 5 percent in 2010, according to the widely used Bordeaux Index. That beats the price of oil, up 3 percent, and even gold, which is up 2 percent.
Most of the new demand for fine wine is coming from Asia,
particularly China, according to Gary Boom, managing director of Bordeaux Index.
At a Hong Kong Sotheby’s auction in October, bidders paid a record-shattering $8.4 million for fine and rare wine.
Among the vintage wines sold, well above estimated prices, were 3 bottles of 1869 Lafite-Rothschild,
“When you see the prices that were achieved last night,” a Sotheby
spokesman said, “it recalibrates the market.”