Wigley room

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Wigley room

Posted by: $author under Wine Updated: February 24, 2010 - 3:28 PM

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I had a tougher-than-usual time writing this week’s Liquid Assets column. It’s at heart a business story, but to make it work in the Taste section it needed to be more of a “people” and wine story. So some cool stuff got left out.

Including a few facts about the Bacchus Wine Fund:

*Another key to their success was the faltering economy. “In 2008 the distress was [at wineries] in France,” Wigley said. “In early 2009 it was with the wholesalers, and in late 2009 with the retailers. Basically we’re dealing with little companies that have a weak cash-balance sheet all over the world.” About a third of Bacchus’ purchases come from “some component of the distressed business channel,” he added, with another third each from collectors and auctions.

*The portfolio includes almost no wine purchased locally.

*If any local collector contacts them about selling vintage wine, the process works like this: “We send a bid contingent on due diligence, do the paperwork, then check out the cellar.” Those interested in emptying out their cellar should know that they almost certainly will not get a “market value” that they find in a publication (print or Web). A goal of the fund, by bits very nature as a business, is to buy wine that they can then sell at a higher price.

*More than 80 percent of the fund's wines are from Bordeaux and Burgundy.

*They’re looking into “alternate distribution channels into Asia where we can extract a larger component of fair retail value,” Wigley said. That would include one high-end restaurant and one retailer in Asia.

*They joined the London-based fine-wine exchange Liv-Ex www.liv-ex.com in London last summer and sometimes sell wine via that platform. “There are wines you’d rather sell in London than Hong Kong,” Wigley said.

Random thoughts from Michael Wigley:

*I asked him “If wine was a hobby, how has working in the business changed your hobby?” His response: “Yes, and part of it because there’s still a lot of investment-grade wine I haven’t tried, never had Vega Sicilia, so I have a great desire to try a lot of that.”

*One of his favorite underrated Bordeaux: Chateau Gloria St. Julien

*One reason why Hong Kong acutions have taken off? “A lot of it is the creation of an upper-middle class in China and India, places that never even had a middle class, much less an upper-middle class,” he said.