By Emma Brannam
To some people, buying fine wine which they don't plan to drink sounds rather unpalatable - but it's becoming increasingly popular in New Zealand.
Experts say the global wine market is holding up well during the financial crisis, and for those with some spare cash it can be a fun and less risky way to invest.
When investing, many Kiwis purchase property, some speculate on the stock market and a growing number like portfolio with a bottle or two of red.
At auction, good vintages sell for hundreds even thousands of dollars.
Webbs fine wine expert, Simon Ward, says interest from Asian markets keeps prices high and unlike most investors, they don't hide the corkscrew.
"They're buying it to drink to have on their tables and to show off," he says.
But usually wine investment takes a while to mature.
"Generally speaking you're looking at 10 to 20 years down the track from when you purchased the wine," says John Caro of Caro Wines.
"The big caveat is you've got to have proper storage conditions for the wine in that time, and providence is everything when you come to reselling your wine."
New Zealand wines aren't well enough established to be a good investment, so many investors buy from established European vineyards either en primeur - still in the barrel - or from a good vintage. A bottle of Bordeaux is always a safe bet.
A bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild from one of the greatest wine estates in the world, around 25 years old, would have cost around $200 to purchase when it was made. It's now worth around $3000, making for quite an expensive glass of wine.
And later vintages can do well too.
"The most recent vintage 2009 is one of the greatest vintages of the century," says MR Caro. "2005 and 2000 are also very good vintages."
Investor Mark Trim has spent more than $200,000 on his passion, but it's worth every dollar.
"I always used to joke with people that if the world financial markets collapsed at least I'd have nice wine to drink and not worthless bits of paper."
And while Mr Trim might have to wait a while for a good return, he's totally confident in his liquid assets.
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