The Wall Street Journal was recently asking sommeliers and investors about wine collecting as an alternative to stocks, bonds, real estate and other investments.

They find that more than 1 in 10 high-net-worth households collect fine wine, and many see it as part of their investment portfolio. Wine had annualized real returns (after inflation) of 4.1% from 1900 to 2012, according to the Journal of Wine Economics, outperforming art and government bonds over that period. 

Yet, wine investments are very risky. The ability to sell the assets at will is very limited, fair pricing is hard to establish, and markets can also develop price bubbles, like we are currently observing in Bordeaux, where prices are far ahead of actual quality in comparison to prior vintages and alternative regions. 

Read an abbreviated article here in the Wall Street Journal, and discover 9 more "winemaker secrets" that the journal exposes. While we don't agree with all of the observations made in this piece, we noticed that many readers found it interesteding to read.

 

 

Wine Elite's specialist for consumer communications, Erik Brown, has developed another secret expertise, this time he put himself in front of a group of 30 wine collectors to demonstrate basic whiskey differentiation in his very first under-pressure blind-tasting. 

Here are his findings: 

"I was informed there were four types I had to identify: Scotch, Kentucky Bourbon, Canadian Blended Whiskey, and a Tennessee Straight Whiskey.

The first glass contained a dark caramel color, showed a smooth vanilla palate and had quite a bite from the alcohol.  I deduced this one to be the Kentucky Bourbon based on those qualities.  

The second tumbler was an easy one to identify, its smoky and peaty/earthy overtones in both smell and taste made it a Scotch without a doubt.  The lighter color also aided me; whiskeys from the isles use pre-used charred oak barrels from American distilleries for maturation.  This gives the whiskey a lighter gold color and less sugar compared to the American and Canadian counterparts.  

The third glass also had the caramel color and high sugar content as the first glass, the taste was similar; but there was one distinct smell and taste: I got the faintest trace of maple, instantly telling me this must be the Canadian whiskey.  Although similar to the Kentucky variety, this whiskey was a bit smoother due to the blending process.

There was the final glass. Its taste was also different -- instead of smooth caramel type flavors, I was punched with the bite of a Tennessee Straight Whiskey. The taste comes from the charcoal filtering, leaving the finished product with only flavors from the grains used in the mash."

Erik identified all whiskeys correctly... using the simple tasting identifiers mentioned here. If you like whiskey, you can replicate this experiment at home, and will likely be able to establish the order correctly, too.
 

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