Red (and White) Gold

It's worth noting that a general wine index outperformed the market over the course of the past 13 years, an interesting stretch of time which includes the dot-com boom and bust, the housing bubble, and a major recession. But it's particularly interesting what happens when your wine investing gets specialized, according to the Telegraph:

"Economists found that an index of first-growth Bordeaux from top vintages 'hugely outperforms' their two other wine indexes from 2005. Top Bordeaux wines include Chateau Margaux, Chateau Latour, and Chateau Lafite Rothschild. The elite wines produced a more than fivefold return compared with the regular wine index, which more than doubled."

Part of the key, apparently? Like gold, wine is a tangible asset. Which means that no matter how bad things get, you can at least still get schnockered in style.

Image source: Flickr member :: shodan :: under Creative Commons