Investment wine in 2020 held up, and did better than classic cars, art and jewelry

Despite the pandemic, the number of super rich people (those who earn more than 30 million dollars per year), has increased by 2.4%, we are talking about 520,000 people in the world, with the growth concentrated in North America, Europe and Asia, above all (the area of the world that will grow the most from now to 2025), whereas Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe are decreasing. Well, for this very limited target, the great luxury wine (a microcosm made up of very few labels from very few wineries in Italy and the world) has been confirmed as one of the most profitable investments ever, and one of the most desirable also in 2021. It emerges from “The Wealth Report” 2021, just published by Knight Frank agency, one of the giants of high-end real estate in the world, which monitors the trend of investments in different sectors of luxury, summarized in the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index. An index that, overall, grew 3%, with wine as the second top performer overall, growing +13% in 2020 over 2019 (and +129% over the past 10 years), outperforming only the luxury handbag category (+13%) but doing better than investment assets like classic cars (+6%), watches (+5%) and furniture (+4%). And even better than coins, diamonds and jewelry (all down -1%), whiskies (the best category in 2019, which lost -4% in 2020 but, over the 10 years, saw a monstrous increase of 478%) and, most importantly, art, which lost -11%.
“The luxury wine market was in control, wine merchants didn't lower prices, and investors didn't back down”, comments Miles Davis of Wine Owners, which produces the Knight Frank Fine Wine Icons Index. An index that outperformed the average, with older vintages of the great Supertuscans (such as Sassicaia, Solaia and Tignanello by Antinori or Masseto and Ornellaia by Frescobaldi, for example) rising by as much as 18%, better than Burgundy (+11.5%), Champagne (+14) and the premier crus of Bordeaux (+5.8%).
Data that confirm the boom of Italian wines for collecting registered throughout the year by Liv-Ex, as reported several times by WineNews. And, from Knight Frank's report, another interesting element emerges: more than economic turbulence, for the luxury wine market the real challenge is climate change. “Global warming is affecting classic wine regions, particularly Burgundy, because of Pinot Noir’s peculiar sensitivity to excessive heat. Perhaps now is the time to fill up on more affordable wines from classic vintages like 2014 or 2016, as vintages like these will be increasingly rare in the future”.