Talking Wine – May 2022

My attention has just been drawn to another wine scam and although I have touched on this subject in the past, I must warn potential wine investors to be ultra-cautious if following this slightly dangerous route. This time it’s a company called Global Wine Exchange.

The Directors claimed to have “over a decade of experience” despite the company only being registered in 2018. They aggressively persuaded investors to part with their hard-earned money (or not!) and promised huge returns. However instead of buying and storing carefully chosen wine they simply pocketed most of the money. They lied about where the wine was kept but managed to spend the money  lavishly for a year or two before getting rumbled.

There are several well-known wine companies who specialise in wine investment and have a good reputation. But the problem here is that you don’t see your wine for many years whilst it is stored in bonded warehouses in perfect conditions. Therefore, rogue companies operate a Ponzi scheme and because investors do not actually have real proof of ownership they can cleverly avoid getting caught out for many years. These scam companies often operate under posh sounding names which would seem, on the surface to have great credibility. They produce elaborate brochures and investment charts but wine investment, like most investments, can vary hugely (as I write the stock market has crashed). Catch it right and you can make good returns, but nothing is guaranteed and unless you know what you are doing, I would personally avoid such investments. If you want some advice, please speak to us – we would guide you to the right company where your investment would be safe and you would always own the wine. So if the investment failed just drink the wine!!