October 2020 Newsletter

Hello All,

As England enters a second lockdown, and with similar measures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland impacting on everyone’s plans for the months ahead, it is clearly a challenging period for our economy. In the midst of everything that is happening, we are still finding reasons to be cheerful! Over the last week here at the office, we have been fixated on the outcome of the 2020 election, as we are sure you have all been. After days of tension and uncertainty, on Saturday we received confirmation that we now have a new US president, Joe Biden. So how has the election affected the wine investment industry? And how is it going to change it moving forward?

Impact of the US Election on Bordeaux and Burgundy

It is likely that Biden’s government will overturn the tariffs imposed by Trump on European trade; he has been highly critical of Trump’s tariffs, particularly on China, and their impact on the US economy. Fine wine buyers in the US are likely to be keen to return to the market, and will look to purchase wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy minus the 25% tariffs. European leaders are hopeful that Biden will be more flexible in future trade discussions than Trump has been. There is already some evidence that demand for Bordeaux and Burgundy is growing in Asia as countries that were impacted early by COVID move on from the impact of the virus.

A strong start to Sotheby’s autumn auction season

Two private cellars went up for auction at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in early October, selling in their entirety and fetching a superb HK$72.8million (US$9.4m). Included was an extremely rare 12-bottle case of 1990 Romanée-Conti. Sotheby’s Regional Head, Adam Bilbey, remarked that collectors in Asia were ‘showing no sign of slowing down in their pursuit of the finest wines with exceptional provenance.’ Read the full article here.

Our October tasting

Following the success of our first monthly Zoom tasting, we continued in October with another fantastic (and great value) wine. This time we opted for Chateau Haut Langlade 2016, a wine from the Montagne-St-Emilion region of Bordeaux. You can find tremendous value in some of these ‘satellite’ regions of Bordeaux; if you choose carefully, you can end up with a wine with all the character and elegance of a classic St-Emilion but without the hefty price tag to accompany it. Our fellow tasters seemed to enjoy the wine, a brooding Merlot-based blend with lots of intense, rich dark fruit flavours, and some earthy, floral notes and soft tannins.

If you would like to join us for our next tasting, please contact us for more details.

Now THAT’S how you invest in whisky…

Having recently moved into the whisky market ourselves, we absolutely loved this story about Matthew Robson from Taunton whose father bought him a bottle of 18 year old Macallan for his birthday every year. Mr Robson senior spent approximately £5000 on the whisky collection, and his ‘perfect set’ sold at auction recently for £44,000, providing the young Mr Robson with a deposit on his first home. Watch the BBC video containing his story here.

The next time we reach out to you, Christmas will almost be upon us and we may or may not be emerging from lockdown. In the meantime, stay healthy and safe, and please feel free to get in touch if you wish to discuss your portfolio.

Kind Regards,

The Elite Wine & Whisky Team

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