Blog Minx

You can invest your money in shares, property, or gold. But what about wine?

I ask because a friend of mine collects wine. His collection is growing by the month. He imports wine and – get this – doesn’t drink it. He cellars it. And the other night he forced me along to a wine tasting (well, not forced: it was $5 for a bunch of tasty Spanish wines, and some cheese to boot).

Let me just say that I am one of the three people in the world who didn’t like the winery roadtrip yawnfest Sideways. It was whiny (and winey), slow, that ‘buddy’ was a cheating loser, and it was full of f***ing Merlot.

It wasn’t just the movie. The whole Wine Appreciation thing seemed rather pretentious to me. Who cares about a ‘good nose’, a ‘spicy aftertaste’ or a ‘strapping varietal’? Just drink the damn thing! In restaurants, I just order whatever is the second-cheapest.

But I went to this wine tasting thing and behold, a Wine Snob emerged! I was murmuring, ‘Good nose,’ and ‘Hints of pear.’ Oh dear. And that was only by the first glass. After the eighth glass, I was ordering bottles and extolling the virtues of the Chivite Reserva. The what-what? It’s a blur.

My friend bought some to add to his budding cellar. I bought some to drink this weekend.

So I learned: Buying wine sensibly and looking after it for years can be an investment. Buying wine on a whim and glugging it down is not an investment in anything but a hangover, but it’s more fun. So I’ll stick with my shares.

What about you? Have you hoarded any wines for a profit?