Many people invest in wine with a view to selling a proportion of it to subsidise the cost of the bottles they choose to drink. If your main objective is to realise a profit however, you don't need to be a wine connoisseur. You will probably do best if your buying strategy is entirely unconnected to your drinking preferences.
According to Berry Brothers and Rudd Hong Kong managing director, Nicholas Pegna, by far the best performing investment wines over the long or short term are the ones only the very wealthy can afford to uncork. All of them are French and red, and most are from Bordeaux.
None have a valuation likely to fall victim to fad or fashion, and several have had their best-of the-best status carved in stone since 1855.
That, as any lover of Bordeaux will immediately recognise, was the year of the Official Classification of Medoc and Graves, which stated unequivocally that the top drops were Chateau Lafite (now Lafite-Rothschild), Chateau Margaux, Chateau Latour and Chateau Haut-Brion. In 1973 - after a long battle - Chateau Mouton-Rothschild was admitted to this most exclusive of clubs, and now shares the near-bullet-proof status of its fellow members.
There are a few others which, if they have been properly stored and have a well-documented history, are equally unlikely to lose you money.
Pegna singles out the unclassified Pomerol star Chateau Petrus - Pomerol has never been classified - and two other Pomerols, Chateau Lafleur and Chateau Le Pin.