Market History
Market History of Fine Wine Investments
The drinking and worshipping of Wines goes back longer than written history. It emerges with civilisation itself
from the East.
It was in fact the Romans who brought the first vines to France at about 500 BC, and planted in bordeaux at approximately 50 AD. There has been much speculation about the quality of Roman wine, which is quite well documented. It apparently had extraordinary powers of keeping, which in itself suggests that even then it was
good. The great vintages were discussed and even drunk for longer than seems possible; there are records
of a wine made in 121 BC being drunk when it was 125 years old.
The most consequential move in history was when the Romans took their vines to Gaul, by the time they withdrew
in the fifth century from what is now France, they had laid the foundations for almost all the greatest vineyards of
the modern world. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans were not limited to earthenware and amphora's to store their
wines in, they had barrels not dissimilar to modern barrels and bottles not dissimilar to modern bottles.
Shakespeare was also a great lover of wine, and left some of the most descriptive tasting notes of the 17th century.
Late in the 17th century the cork was discovered. Bit by bit it became clear that wine kept in a tightly corked bottle
lasted much longer than wine kept in a barrel as it had been, which was likely to "go off" at any time after the barrel
was broached. It was also discovered that wines kept in different sized bottles also aged in a different way, acquiring what is known as a bouquet.
The Wine trade was booming and bordeaux wines were being exported all over the world. In fact ships were measured by the number of tonnes of wine they could carry.
In 1855 Napoleon III effectively started the "Fine Wine Index" when he classified the wines in bordeaux from 1 to 5.
He based his decisions on the quality and prices realised of each Châteaux wines over the previous 100 years or
so. Apart from one change in 1979 when Château Mouton-Rothschild was promoted from a 2nd growth to a 1st
growth wine, nothing has ever changed.
In fact the laws he put in place in 1855 are vigorously upheld today and controlled by the Institut D'Appellations
d'Origine and upheld by EC directives.
