What is better Vino Vest, Vint, or Cult for Fine Wine Investing?

Why Wine?

Why wine? What is the intrinsic value of wine and the history of wine investing? Fine wine dominated historically by vineyards in France and other Mediterranean countries has shown real appreciation in value over the years. Finite and tangible, once a vintage has been recognized as high rated to peer vintage its scarcity is real. Unlike fiat currencies, a high-rated elite brand vintage of wine cannot be simply counterfeited and printed.

Inflation is the perfect storm for investing in fine wine.

With inflation growing at record levels almost all commodities should see a rise in prices against falling currency values. Some commodities may see a slow down in use due to a recession. How would fine wine fare during stagflation? First, we must ask who is the buyer of fine wine on a retail level? Wealthy people are the buyers of fine wine. The top 2-10% of the population are the buyers of fine wine. For years we have been seeing the poor get poorer and the rich get richer and that does not look to be changing anytime soon.

Supply and Demand and Booms and Busts.

When I was a kid I learned about supply and demand and booms and busts from my experience with collecting baseball cards. In the late 1990s, baseball cards were very hot. We had price guides like Becket that listed the current trading value of all cards. At baseball card conventions you could buy and trade cards in bulk or find rare cards. But what we did not know was that baseball card companies got greedy and printed extreme amounts of cards during this boom. Printing too many cards devalued the baseball card market. To this day the baseball card trading market has been greatly diminished. Rare cards printed before the boom are all that is intrinsically valuable.

The accent of the global Millionaire and Billionaire market.

While the poor are getting poorer the rich are getting richer and there are more millionaires than ever before. In 2021 global millionaires grew to 56.1 million. By 2025 global wealth is expected to grow by 37%. Millionaires need something to spend their money on.

Wine VS Baseball Cards.

It’s silly to even make this comparison because even though the wine markets do have booms and busts but unlike baseball cards, fine wine is a consumable product. The purpose of wine is to be drunk. Even though some collectors collect fine wine for years they cannot just print more bottles of older established vintages. And the supply of these elite vintages decreases every year. In France, the appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC, “controlled designation of origin”) is a certification of authenticity granted to certain wines in France limiting the amount of wine being made in the area making it even rarer.

The key to investing in fine wine.

Knowing the marketplace and knowing the right brands and vintages is the key to investing in fine wine. That being said it takes experts in any industry and is not something for novices to make guesses at. Unless this is your life’s passion you had better have an expert in the field to guide you into what vintages to be investing in and then there is proper storage and knowing the buyers. How do you liquidate an investment in fine wine? As a private owner of fine wine that could be more difficult.

Which is the best Wine Investment Product Cult Wine Investments, Vino Vest Or Vint?

Vint.

Vint is an SEC-qualified platform where investors can buy shares in collections of fine wine. It is regulated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. With Vint, you are buying shares of wine collections so you own shares of a collection, not wine. You cannot currently sell your shares in your Vint collections of wine. Fine wine is a semi-long-term investment. The company charges a sourcing fee for the wine but is unclear on the website what that amount is. You can get exposure to fine wine investing with Vint for as little as $100.

Vino Vest.

Unlike Vint with Vino Vest, you own your wine outright. Vinovest specialists will help select the wine for you. The wine is stored in secure facilities. You have a receipt of the wine and where it is stored at all times. They facilitate the sale of the wine to the buyers when it has matured in value. No minimum hold times are required with Vino Vest. You can sell your wine at any time but early liquidation fees may apply. You can even take possession of your wine whenever you want to, but shipping fees may apply. Fees range from 2.25% to 2.85% annually based on the size of your portfolio of wines. You can start investing with Vino Vest with an investment of $1000.

Cult Wines Investments.

Like Vino Vest, you own your wine with Cult Wines. Your wine collection is stored in London England, in climate control and is insured and monitored. Cult and Vino Vest have very similar business models. Cult Wines appears a little sexier than Vino Vest and has been around since 2007. It is a larger company than Vino Vest and is based in the UK. Fees range from 2.25% to 2.95% based on the size of the portfolio of fine wines. With as little as $10,000 or 10,000 pounds sterling you too can become a serious fine wine investor.

Historic Investment Returns of Fine Wine.

While historic returns on any investment are not a guarantee of future rewards, Fine wine has done well in the Q1 of 2022 versus the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ. Fine wine boasts a 7.25% return on investment in the first quarter of 2022, while the S&P 500 has a current -4.60% for the quarter and the NASDAQ had a -9.08% return for the same quarter. In the last 12 months Fine wine has made a 24.70% return!

Liv-Ex.

What is Liv-Ex? Firstly, Liv-Ex is the global market place for the wine trade. Secondly, it’s the source of transactions wine price information. Thirdly, on Liv-Ex you will find market data and indexes on the wine trade.

What goes better with wine than cigars?

what is Nate Plissken’s recommendation for the best value cigar? Read more here.

More on Investing during times of inflation.

You have heard that gold is a hedge against inflation. Is gold currently a undervalued asset class? Read my blog about a new way to buy gold.