Wine Investment for Portfolio Diversification: How Collecting Fine Wines Can Yield Greater Returns Than Stocks and Bonds

Mahesh Kumar, BA (Hons), ACMA, ATT, CMC, MBA a London based, chartered accountant and financial professional develops the "Fine Wine Index" and documents how investment in fine wines over the past 20 years equal 'or exceed' the return from stocks and bonds. Based on the Nobel Prize winning portfolio theory of Harvey Markovitz, the author provides a mean-variance model with expected return, standard deviations (risk) and correlations between asset returns. Since portfolios including Fine Wines have higher Sharpe ratios than stocks and bonds only, they have a higher expected return per unit of risk. It includes extensive data and charts that document the performance for each investment for every 5 year period since 1983. The 'blue chip' wines and vintages are discussed and strategies for reduction of risk by buying the right wines at the right time are recommended.