Wine as an investment? - - 20 20 Hindsight says No!

William Hague's a bit of a wine Connoisseur says the story at the end of that link.  Taking time off from ministerial duties to select wines for official functions.  I like any old wine really, preferably a dry white but can glug down most reds at any time.

Having been made redundant in 2008, paid off the mortgage and banked the rest I started looking round for somewhere to invest it.   We had topped up the ISA's but the interest rates looked a bit dismal.  The banks savings rates were no better. I then received a cold call from European Fine Wines  After doing a bit of research on the net I bought a number of cases and these were delivered to a bonded warehouse at Burton Upon Trent.

For two and a half years the wine grew in value and I would receive regular "Portfolio valuation reports" Towards the back end of 2010 these stopped arriving.  I eventually got hold of, "my broker" and was told this was because the market had "suffered a downturn"  A state unhappily that endures to today!

The constant sales phone calls continued however and eventually I fell out with European Fine Wines and threw in my lot with Encarta Fine Wines 
The approach of this company was almost the same but I did have a contact who seemed to know what he was talking about.  He however came to grief and was killed in a road accident in Bordeaux while buying wine for the company.  I was informed of this by the unlikely sounding name of a guy calling himself Louis Laronte (Mmmmmm).  He managed to contain his grief though and turned the call into a sales call!!!

I had been considering withdrawing from this little adventure for some time and the call from good old "Louis" was the catalyst!  I put up my wine for sale to both companies and Encarta provided the best prices. The return would represent nearly a 25% loss on the initial investment!  I arranged to transfer the wine to their account at the warehouse and this was completed on the 13th of June.  It wasn't until the 9th of July that I got the cash!!!

So! Wine as an investment?  20 20 hindsight says No!  I'm sure there are lots of people who have made money on wine investment but I don't count myself amongst them!  The only wine I shall be buying in future will come from the supermarket shelf!

A little bit of drama the other day down at Sainsbugs where I work.  I had popped in to shop and was shown an internal window between the shop and the cafe that had started to crack.

It was thought the heat had something to do with it and the crack got larger and larger.  The shop manager took action by poking it out and the whole pane 3ft by 8ft crashed into bits like a vehicle windscreen.

We had a cloudy day for the whole of yesterday and there has been some very fine rain falling this morning so it looks as if the "heatwave" is on its way out.
Enjoy the day  

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