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Welcome to Episode #29 of the GVE London Podcast, proudly sponsored by Howden Group, a global insurance and risk advisor committed to excellence. With a team of over 17,000 professionals globally, Howden Group specializes in a wide array of services from casualty and property insurance to complex business risks. Discover more about their innovative solutions and how they can support your insurance needs at Howden Group – https://www.howdengroup.com/uk-en
In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of fine wines with Greg Swartberg, the founder of CRU Wine. Join us as we explore the intricate details of managing one of the world’s largest wine collections, valued in the millions. Greg shares insightful tips on why wine should be considered a vital addition to investment portfolios and recounts the story behind the most expensive bottle of wine he has ever sold. Whether you are a wine aficionado or curious about wine investment, this episode promises a wealth of knowledge and interesting discussions.
Subscribe to our channel for more insightful talks and exciting guests. Hit the bell icon to stay updated on all our latest content. Don’t forget to like and comment below with your thoughts on wine investment or any questions you might have for Greg!
#GVELondonPodcast #WineInvestment #LuxuryLifestyle #HowdenGroup #InsuranceSolutions #FineWine #WineCollector #InvestmentTips
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00:00 Introduction
03:00 About CRU Wine
08:00 How to store wine
16:30 Opening the wine
25:00 best time to drink and invest
27:00 Wine regions
32:00 House wine
35:00 Wine taste
38:00 The value of wine
44:00 spirits
46:00 What is the earliest bottle of wine you have tasted?
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the most expensive bottle of wine you’ve
ever sold the most expensive bottle of
wine I ever sold was uh £60,000 it was a
Lura musini 2005 Lura is is a terrific d
l is a terrific um producer in burgundy
p no of course for some reason or
another everyone thinks they doing a
great deal by buying the second cheapest
wine on the menu everyone does that
they’re like I’m not going to go for the
cheapest but the second cheapest must be
the best choice every restaurant knows
this and therefore it is the one with
the biggest markup on every single one
list is the second cheapest so if you
want to go for the cheapest go for the
cheapest if you want to have a better
deal go for the third cheapest a lot of
people want to buy fine wine they don’t
really know where to start they don’t
know really what the value is of these
products once they’ve bought them and
they don’t know really how to store them
which seems to be a pretty important
thing in this industry and I said you
know would be great if we start a
business where we just made it extremely
simple for people to get help in terms
of discovering what wines to buy and
storing them in a proper way getting a
really easy View on what the value is of
these products at any given time and
that’s how we kicked it off all this
talk about wine I think we should
probably crack these ones W for it let’s
do it I really enjoyed these bottles of
wine I think I might have enjoyed them
too much I have to get a lift home if if
one of you boys can drop me
[Music]
off hello and welcome to the GV London
podcast and today we’re talking about
the world of Fine Wine I’ve got my good
friend Greg swartberg on and he started
a business 10 years ago that specializes
in buying and selling fine wine he sells
hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine
every single year he’s going to be
telling us everything about the right
wine to invest in Crazy wine collections
up to 60 million just one guy owning one
collection and just crazy stories about
fake bottles of wine in the industry now
guys before we go on I’d like to take a
moment to tell you that today’s sponsor
is how Insurance Group I can’t stress
how important it is for a business owner
to have the right insurance broker
alongside them uh especially a business
owner that is in the motor trade
industry especially with the increas in
crime in the UK it’s never been more
important to choose the right insurance
broker and I personally believe that
Howen have been absolutely excellent
howdens don’t only cover car insurance
they actually cover many different
Insurance products AC across different
sectors they’ve been running for around
30 years and very well respected in the
industry we get customers from all walks
of life here at GV and there could be
customer that needs to get one car
insured or sometimes there’s customers
that have car collections of 10 20 30
cars and we have no hesitation in
putting them forward so guys if you find
yourself in need of some insurance check
out the link in the description below
and I hope you enjoy the rest of the
podcast so Greg tell us a little bit
more more about crew wine so uh crew
wine started 10 years ago uh founded a
business was a co-founder also Dutch
like myself and uh we really started the
business with the view to help private
clients collect buy the rarest bottles
of wine in the world that’s how we
started off um and as you know from
starting a business it was quite tricky
in the beginning uh but we we built a
business up to where we are today and
and where where is that so what what’s
the revenue like at this point in time
so we’re working towards 20 million a
year 20 million a year the and how many
bottles of wine does that equate to um
we would go in the in the hundreds of
thousands um so you yeah You’ look at
our warehouse which bigger than this one
no way and just filled with wine yeah
that’s amazing yeah and um so you said
you started it 10 years ago did you
always have a passion before you started
uh the business about
yeah um so that’s quite uh I’ll tell you
how I started with it so when I was
young uh 17 I went into my father’s
seller and um and I looked at the wines
and I thought all right I shouldn’t
choose any select any wine it’s too
expensive so I found one which um I grew
up in France and um was called chat
muton rout um but at the time I didn’t
know what it meant or what it was but
mut in French means sheep so I thought
to myself shat sheep this got to be this
has got to be cheap stuff so I can open
that and so I opened up with my buddies
who all knew nothing about wine just
like myself and and it was spectacular
it really I remember to this day it was
spectacular how old were you 17 17 years
old maybe 16 okay probably shouldn’t
have opened that but Sur surely in
France all the kids start drinking quite
early like wine wine surely isn’t yeah
wine was water at 14
maybe and um and it was amazing and and
I and that day kind of it started for me
to remember that uh it it you know it’s
such it’s something really nice it’s a
product I liked I had curiosity was kind
of developed then um and then I started
my career in strategy consultancy and
all these kind of things which which was
relatively boring you could say um and
then with my buddy we were like look a
lot of people want to buy fine wine uh
they don’t really know where to start um
they don’t know really what the value is
of these products once they’ve bought
them and they don’t know really how to
store them which seems to be a pretty
important thing in this industry um and
I said you know would be great if we
started a business where we just made it
extremely simple for people to get help
in terms of discovering what wines to
buy and storing them in in in in a in a
proper way getting a really easy view on
on on what the value is of these
products at any given time and then just
be able to sell them as well if they
wanted to without having to find out you
know through auctions and various other
way how to sell these products uh and
that’s how we kicked it off so we
started with like you know a few friends
like that get most business start to to
thousands and thousands of clients
nowadays really yeah
so I’m guessing when you started there
weren’t many other people doing the same
thing or there were but they’ve done it
in a more traditional way and you’ve
bought a more new age uh uh uh twist to
the business yeah you spot on that’s
right 10 years ago we still have those
competitors who’ve been around for 250
years um but they do it very
traditionally you call up or you you
email and you buy some products and you
kind of almost have to keep a tap at
home as to what you have and this sort
of digital approach was was was was very
new at least 10 years ago where You’ log
in online you’ll see all your history
all your products you have you could
click a button sell it I mean it’s
really interactive wow deal with a Col
say say for example I bought a case of
wine from yourself yeah then I could log
on to your system yeah see that I bought
it you know a year where it is in the
world at this moment CU it could be in
transit ah well so I I’ve I’ve ordered
it from you it’s in transit it’s coming
from Argentina let’s say for example
right and um but then once I receive it
and two years later I can log onto my
system and then say Greg do you want to
buy my crat wine from Argentina because
it’s gone up in value yeah and you can
even go further you might have three
cases you say I want to have two bottles
delivered and I want to sell the rest or
I want to buy I want to get one one case
deliv it I want to sell the other two
and we can even go further where you say
actually I’d like to trade it with
someone so you swap a bottle for bottle
so it doesn’t even have to land on your
doorstep no we keep everything in big
warehous like these we got three
throughout Europe there’s one in Italy
one in France one in UK and um it’s and
it’s a very important Point here because
um I think it’s very similar to to
supercars the the history of how a the
product has been kept when this so for
us it’s actually where it has been
stored the humidity levels all these
things when it was transported was it
transport in summer yes or no all these
factors determine the value of the
product because the product is alive
superar same who owned it was it
maintained yes or no my knowledge of
supercars is is obviously more basic I
get it Provence right but the Providence
of of is super important so actually
storing it in professional warehouses
like ours yeah keeps the value or
ensures it the product is kept uh in its
best conditions which therefore maximize
the value of it so is there ever a case
where somebody buys a I don’t know like
a 30-year-old bottle of wine and then um
and then they open it and it’s because
it’s not been stored right like I don’t
know what’s the terminology it’s been
cked yeah and then suddenly it tastes
like vinegar and you’re like oh God and
it’s horrible right cuz you’re looking
cuz you’re looking forward to it and
then you open it up and it’s horrible
yeah and we can often look just look at
the btle we can already see if it’s uh
what we call unconditioned one of the
the the the factors is it could be
cooked uh but um how is um the cork so
if you if you keep a bottle vertically
that’s a very basic thing it’s very
important for anyone collecting wine
always store it horizontally okay and
the reason why is because it keeps the
cork humid okay and if it’s vertical and
it’s kept dry and then you turn around
again then some of the wines can go
through and therefore you can see it on
the capsule that wine has gone through
the Cork and for most likely the wine is
unconditioned oh no so just looking at
the bottle you can sometimes see it you
don’t even have to open the cork so um
when you lay the bottle horizontally
right um is there also another thing
where you have to then turn the bottle
slowly or something like that is that
right yeah well you got you know you
know you
want um yeah it helps as well to turn it
around a little bit
um in in to the extent that yeah if you
st if you st in a certain way that is
not liid all the way to the cor then
yeah it helps also in Champagne they do
it a lot for the aging process which is
probably where you might have seen it as
well um but it’s less important than the
fact of just having it horizontally and
vertically the the most important is to
store it horizontally and also it’s
about the the humidity so um and and the
temperature so if you if you put a
bottle of wine for three hours in the
summer in the sun you can already almost
say that it’s cooked um and and so it’s
it’s a lot of clients would say oh how
would was this one was this wine
transport in summer yes or no and if it
has people don’t want to buy it oh
really yeah so it can’t be too hot uh
hence the reason why people have sellers
yeah which is always cool I guess that’s
from back in the day when air
conditioning wasn’t around yeah that the
coolest part of the house would be a
seller right yeah correct okay fine and
um but but just to to add something to
it um you don’t have to have these
facilities at home you can also store
your your wines that you like and
collect them with companies like ours
keep the wines in storage with us you
pay an annual fee of course and you go
online you click a button you say I want
that wine delivered to my door tomorrow
and you have it anywhere in the country
next day deliver it to your home so you
don’t necessarily have to build all
these facilities at home people like to
because they can show uh their their
products to their friends and then I
guess they can be more spontaneous the
evening of picking a bottle out but you
don’t have to actually most people keep
in in storage with us well I I can’t
imagine a lot of places in London have
that those facili
right especially with space being so
limited but I’ve seen how efficient your
service was because when we kind of
suggested the idea that you might you
should bring a couple of bottles of
bottles of wine yesterday you said Ah
that’s a good idea and literally they
here you know next day before 3:00 is
brilliant yeah you said 30 and I think
we’ve got a bottle of 96 almost 30 years
of age so oh my God we’ll test it maybe
maybe it will be caught I don’t know
that’s amazing but yeah I I’ve been
drinking wine since I was um probably
the French legal limit um 16 156 and
back in the day it was um the reason why
I started drinking wine was firstly
because I saw my mom and dad drinking it
yeah and it was perceived to be the
healthier option if you are going to
drink drink wine right
um and actually I think from my dad’s
perspective as well he he thought okay
well look you’re going to go out and
you’re going to drink with your friends
anyway so if you are going to drink
something wine seems like the sensible
option yeah fine so he’s okay with that
and then uh then it was just having
friends around and back in the day it
was like well the other Factor you have
to consider when you don’t have much
money when you’re a youngster is uh okay
you can buy a bottle a nice bottle of
red for you know back in those days cuz
I’m getting on a bit now was5 six or 7
so equivalent of a 20 bottle today but
ever since then I’ve just absolutely
love my wines but I I I really love the
concept of investing in wines but I’ve I
I find it hard to get my head around
right yeah and so um you know a funny
story somebody told me when I used to go
to Thailand a lot that’s where I done a
lot of business and that’s where I
started this business um and a funny
story that somebody told me in the hotel
that I always used to stay in he’s the
head of uh food and
beverage and um he said you won’t
believe the amount of Chinese clients we
get coming here uh we actually go out
prospecting in Shanghai and Beijing and
whatever to get them to come and stay in
our hotel because we know how much
they’re going to spend on wine right and
he said um you know they’re sitting
around a big table and one friend will
put his hand up and say I’m going to buy
you know a 5,000 bottle of wine and then
the other will say I’m going to buy a 10
or 15 whatever
right and he goes the craziest thing you
won’t believe it but some of some of
them open the bottle put it in and then
top it up with some cocacola I’m not
joking yeah have you heard of that
before yeah I’ve heard of it and I’ve
even seen it yeah no wait when you see
that does your mind start going
mad yeah the honest truth is yes I mean
ultimately people I guess enjoyed them
however they want but yeah it’s it’s
yeah it’s it’s rarely seen uh outside of
maybe that area who some people enjoy it
with with Coca-Cola which is which is a
little bit uh yeah it’s a little bit
different let’s say but that’s crazy
some people I’ve seen them they buy a
bottle of pit Tru for 5K put them in the
fridge you know and and they just take
them out the fridge and say why why you
keep them that way you don’t ask
questions but you just observe and you
say well that’s a bit of an odd way of
of you know you serving your ones and
and yeah and some people you know I’ve
been to that part of the world many
times you know whether it’s Hong Kong
Singapore SE all of those places out
there because we have you know clients
from from that region as well collecting
with us and
um and and and they would you know 35
degre summer bottle red wine some of
them they just refuse to drink white
wine it’s just red wine all the time and
and and so yeah people drink their wines
differently you know in different parts
of the world in the US for example it’s
only about good vintages they will never
tou anything that is not a good vintage
really yeah for not of of course every
American but just as as when when
they’re buying at that level yeah yeah
it’s all about the vintages yeah and
some of them will say we don’t touch
champagne champagne is you know it’s we
just red wi so so you know every part of
the world has a kind of different uh
well it’s interesting they say that
because I think I’ve been to a few
places in Italy now uh where Italy and
Spain where they like putting the uh red
wine in the fridge and then it comes out
cold have you seen that before yes so
I’ve seen it but it’s uh it’s yeah it’s
a little bit uh yeah it’s not the right
way of storing your wines so keeping
your wine so so the red wine is 12 to
14° okay that’s how you should store it
and it’s actually how you should serve
it 12 might be a little bit on the cold
side but that’s roughly where you so it
should be a little bit cold 14 degrees
is cold champagne is 7 to9 you know so
you got like these specific degrees
which are Optimum for wine but a fridge
is like four five degrees so it it’s
really much colder than it should be for
red wine yeah well all this talk about
wine I think we should probably crack
these ones W for it let’s do it okay
terrific I think you’ll be the master in
opening I I know what I’ll do yeah under
all this pressure no no under all this
pressure the C goes and straight inside
or something like that do you know do
you do you always have your red with um
with like cheese or something like that
uh yes so um cheese is great for red
wine but so is white wine yeah so it’s
sweet white wine as well the art of uh
food and and and wine pairing is one of
the big most important job actually of a
s to be able to identify what wine uh
would go well with what kind of food uh
and the reason for it is because you
have some light wines and then you have
some very spicy foods let’s say then if
if if you were to drink the wine then um
the food Takes Over The Taste yeah the
food Takes Over The Taste the one
30-year-old what
wow try to um so there there are four
steps to um tasting to trying wine the
first one is the color so so if it’s if
it’s all it tends to turn to Brown so
you can see it’s a little bit more
brownish the second one is on the nose
without
swirling second one is
swirling what it does is it opens up D
wine superb really you didn’t need to
let it breathe or anything like that oh
that’s going to be
beautiful you’re going to enjoy that and
do you know to tell if it’s been corked
do you have to can you also tell from
the actual cork itself right yeah so
it’s so it’s um scientific reaction
essentially from the cork uh and there’s
nothing you can essentially do about it
it’s one out of 200 um one out of 200
bottles inevitably get CED that happens
in it’s a reaction from the cook um and
and therefore yeah just it’s like a what
they say um carton box it’s got that
carton box taste to it oh yeah yeah I’ve
had one like that before yeah me too too
many times
unfortunately but actually a lot of
people don’t realize that when they go
to a restaurant and
um when they’re told would you like to
try the wine it’s not to actually just
try the wi and see if they like it it’s
just to be able to tell if the bottle
was cked or not yes right and so then
what are the key things that they should
be looking out for when um ailer brings
some wine and says would you like to try
the
wine um I think the the most important
is to see if you like it um
and after having tried thousand of wines
it’s also about trying to remember if if
if it tastes like it should so sometimes
times
um what happens is a wine can be
oxidized meaning there’s too much oxygen
that went into the wine and therefore
just didn’t H world you not have that
cotton box feeling but you might not
have the Aromas that you’re supposed to
get it oh
superb just have two amazing ones here
can I get two glasses for me section of
the team has just been too good can we
have two more glasses please oh you’re
going to love these you’re going to love
these I think um I’ve never been so
excited on a
well we’re here to enjoy ourselves so
let’s let’s do something fun um that’s
great try to so try to just look at the
color of the two uh wines okay so and if
so and the way to look at it is often on
something white on something white okay
iPad’s quite white yeah and then if you
take the other one the other GL Sor the
other glass if possible okay just give
me a second I’m going to move this here
yeah
and oh this is lot darker right right
yeah now on the base of having the
knowledge that as a wine ages um it it
it becomes more Brown so when it starts
it’s a bit Ruby and then it when it gets
older gets Brown okay you can just buy
the color say that know that one of the
wines is old than the other okay fine so
the darker it is means the more aged it
is so the more Brown it is okay the more
old it is the more red it is the younger
it is ah okay fine so which one should I
try first the the more brown or the more
red I think the the younger wine the
younger which is more red yes correct
okay and I I will join you in that in
that regard cuz I had the other one all
right cheers and we we’ll try together
cheers um now this is a wine um do we do
you want to say a few words about the
wine or okay move on to something else
it’s fine no no no I want to I want to
uh let me try some first
it smells lovely
huh if you ask me what what uh flavors
can you taste
yes all I know taste wine I can taste
wine and it tastes good and that’s the
most
important frankly it is the most
important um now you could think about
um do you think it it tastes more like
black currant or do you feel it tastes
more like
strawberry um I would say
more black current black currant what
it’s exactly the definition of a
Bordeaux wine is black currant a little
bit more darker fruit so it’s it’s you
know exactly the wine uh it’s just that
I guess I’ve built up the knowledge of
defining all these flavors um but you’re
spot on it’s exactly how you would
Define a Bordeaux Blend or Bordeaux wine
it’s one of the key characteristics is a
bit more darker fruit more darker fruits
and then is there any other thing that
you’re picking up in
this God the smells
lovely it is a really good
wine can you get a little bit of the
chocolate side I get it a little bit
chocolate dark chocolate very nice and
and also it’s like the wine is is maybe
you know is is with you for like five
six seconds so you you kind of get
different Aromas throughout the process
of smelling it and then and and tasting
it um but yeah this is this is a wine we
love into business and and as you said
this this we so we bought this from The
Chateau okay and our company would have
um centralized Consolidated all our
purchases around Bordeaux this is B wine
in our bord warehouse and then it would
have gone through uh in transit through
Consignment to to our UK Warehouse it
would have been stored there for a few
years and and then as you said we made
decision yesterday 11:00 a.m. said oh we
should get some wines and then today you
know at 1: p.m. it’s at your full at
your doorstep that’s uh and and that’s
really great it’s this sort of and so
obviously our clients have this digital
uh ability to control their collections
within within a click of a button and
and that’s really great and that’s what
sets us apart from our compe competitors
um is the ability to give control to our
client base uh on on their Collections
and so this is a bordo wine this one is
a younger one yes so this is how old
this one is 9 years of age okay and um
what type of grape is it um so in
Bordeaux you have typically Blends yeah
and the dominant blend grape is cabin
Sven okay um the the second dominant
grape there is called Merlo mhm and then
you have uh a little bit of p and cab FR
which can make up cab Fran is the third
dominant one and then you have p as well
and this one will be a blend so they
blend all of those into one right yeah
and yeah exactly right um how much would
something like this cost so this one
would be about1 I would say okay and
then um was this particular
vintage uh you know quite special yeah
so from an investment perspective this
one is is great because this is uh what
we would call an
undervalued uh vintage so if you look at
the core that critic scores give to this
particular vintage in the price it is
significantly
underpriced given its quality versus
other vintages who have um a higher
score and um 2014 is for example vintage
if you wanted to collect wine and make
money from it too it’s a vintage you
should be buying today okay so this
compared to other
vintages is undervalued at100 a bottle
right yeah so now in your experience I’m
I’m not holding you to it right
something like
this in ah actually I guess the question
is when is the ideal time to drink it so
9 years ago this wine was made yeah when
is the optimal time to drink I I think
it started 2 years ago okay fine and it
will go on for the next 30 years
probably 25 years no way yes so it’s got
like a probably a 30e window to drink
that’s fantastic right and so from 100
100
pound in 5 years time what do you see
this being
at it could be 150 to 175 okay and then
let’s say how many bottles do you
actually store of this s such that
somebody if he wanted to uh
um have it as an investment like you’d
probably have to buy a few bottles right
yeah typically you you you um you invest
in different regions different vintage
you some people go all in on one wine
but most people go in diversify just
like in in in in with their shares they
diversify their Holdings in wine yeah
and and what are the most popular
regions like I guess Bordeaux is number
one yeah B Bordeaux burgundy Italy
champagne top four vintage in Italy you
have pte Tusan yeah and then you have uh
California as well okay NAA Valle the
new world Napa Valley that’s right uh
but in terms of serious investment grade
regions it’s bulldo burgundy champagne
Tuscan Pon napali and then you can go
for the one off in various different
other regions but those are the serious
uh at scale and in value I mean you know
millions and millions and billions come
out of these regions on an annual basis
really and um what are the upand
cominging kind of wine regions I know uh
there’s a very unusual um wine that I
like and I I discovered it through you
know one of these um wine merchants on
the high Stree but it was um a chatau
Musa from Lebanon yeah and I I’ve never
tasted a wine like that before it just
so great yeah it’s actually the only
wine from libanon which is really quite
uh you could say Global now really uh
yeah um in terms of regions now it’s
Tuscany Tuscany yeah is the real region
which is booming uh and and is
completely under the price versus other
regions not it’s not to say that other
regions are overpriced but but Tuscan is
is I think is offers the best value for
money at the moment any other regions
after
Tuscany I think you know
the burgundy you could say it fell off a
little bit you know recently of its high
and it’s now there’s a lot of Bargains
really so so if any anything you know D
so I this
bottle1 you know maybe 10 5 years 10
years ago would have been more so no
it’s just two years ago we had a crazy
kind of uh Spike up and it kind of
adjust a little bit so right now it’s a
buyers Market really yeah it’s a buyer
Market at the moment Soo and was I’m
guessing two years ago it was a sellers
Market yeah that’s right we saw it with
cars we’ve had people on about their
watch you know watch companies we’ve had
you know all sorts of different
companies come on this podcast and
everybody said the same thing two years
ago it was absolutely a sell’s market
yeah yeah and uh how times have changed
right yeah I mean you could sell a
product 10% above market price two years
ago because people were wanting to buy
it and and and and they were finding to
buy it and now you could buy products
10% on the market 5% on the market why
because some people want to sell and
money and and those who have cash
they’re really benefiting it from at the
moment it’s
unbelievable um I’m looking forward to
trying the next bottle of wine
terrific okay so this is the 30-year-old
y James do you know what I think I might
have some Parmesan in my uh in the
fridge upstairs do you want to do you
want to have some that would be great
it’s definitely in date I
promise um but I want to know why does
wine always taste better when you’ve had
some cheese it’s a very good
question um you know how with white wine
it’s a little bit more the case when you
move it around you have this acidity in
it you kind of have this mouth watering
effect and I think with food uh the same
happens it get like an animal Instinct
almost you see food you get this mouth
watering instant and because you get the
the food and you pair the wine and it
just gets this sort of beautiful mixture
of Aromas in your mouth and it just
makes everything better and a lot of
wines actually taste better when you
have them with food a lot of wines are
also nice without food of course but
yeah when you have cheese it it there’s
something about cheese which I also love
which is the fact that yeah it pairs
really nicely together um it is great
actually James can we get two little
plates and then we can have it on the
the side table please thank you so
that’s interesting about the cheese I
don’t know it kind of dries my mouth out
and then I have the wine and it’s it’s
it’s like quenching my thirst right the
other one is
um steaks yeah so I read somewhere that
actually having a glass of wine with a a
steak is actually quite good because
there’s some enzymes that help in the
wine that help the steak break down is
that right yeah yeah yeah know I’ve
heard of that before yeah few spots on
yeah and um you know miring a a steak
was red wine I mean it’s fantastic we
all know it’s oh really I’ve never tried
no no sorry I meant I meant marrying oh
okay I’m marrying yeah okay fine I
thought you said Mar and uh but also
marinating both are good that would be
quite cool but um yeah know you spot on
in terms of uming it pairing it together
with red one but if you for example had
a very spicy black pepper sauce you put
with a steak and then you put a p Noir
which uh I believe you quite enjoy some
then the wine might not always be as
strong to actually balance with the very
strong Aromas that you will feel in in
your mouth from the the spiciness of the
black pepper okay so Maring the so so
combining um well pairing is the better
word pairing the food with the right
wine is is is is genuinely art uh that’s
why so have have a great job and uh and
it really makes the evening better or
sometimes complet completely ruins an
evening and and that’s why it’s always
great to ask sili for help uh because
although most of the time they tried to
sell you some of the expensive stuff
they know what they’re doing and and and
and it’s a big part of the evening is to
select the right ones I’ve got a funny
story about Samilia and um me and my
friend who’s actually in the same
chapter of YPO that we’re in so actually
that’s one thing that we not mentioned
that we’re both in a a director’s Forum
together uh an organization called Young
Presidents
organization and um what a great
organization that is by the way yeah
terrific but
um so my friend and I we were out and we
were having a stake in a nice place in
Park Lane and um and exactly the same
thing I I need as much help as possible
I don’t profess to know anything about
wine other than a few names right and
the fact that something tastes like
black current but uh I I said to this
smer look I need some help this is the
kind of uh food that we’re going to go
for tonight I need some help with it
yeah so he says oh I’ve got the perfect
wine for you and it’s got this Aroma
this is what it tastes like and all of
that stuff right and so I was like oh my
God this guy’s spoken so passionately
about this wine we have to go for it
right yeah I look at my friend he gives
me the nod and I’m like okay
cool off he walks and then my friend
says one second we didn’t ask him for
the price so hey hey come back for one
second right I had to actually run up to
him because he started processing it in
the the till and uh he comes back to the
table and I said how much is the one you
never told us he said oh okay I forgot
um
1,900
cheeky
yeah I’m happily married with kids but
if I was on a date right and i’ done
that yeah how embarrassing would that be
to be like uh depends on the ending
guess but I’ll tell you something else I
want to add something else actually is
um the famous story of the second
cheapest bottle of wine on menu for some
reason or another everyone thinks I’m
doing a great deal by buying the second
cheapest wine on the menu everyone does
that they’re like I’m not going to go
for the cheapest but the second cheapest
must be the best choice every restaurant
knows this therefore it is the wine with
the biggest markup on every single wine
list it’s the second cheapest so if you
want to go for the cheapest go for the
cheap
if you want to have a better deal go for
the third cheapest never go for the
second cheap but it’s an international
thing that people do they go to look at
the wine list and they say I don’t want
to I’m probably going to have a good
deal by going for the second cheapest
but it’s actually the worst deal you can
go for so I um I have a bit of a stigma
attached to saying house I’ll go for the
housewine yeah because I don’t know
notoriously like house means you’re
going for whatever right the house red
yeah how what’s your views on it I love
it really I love the house red yeah it’s
the owner or someone who knows about
wine they went out the way to select
that particular one as being the house
wine and it generally often is uh a
pretty decent wine um only one I would
stay off is the house white wine I think
the house Ros I grew up sou France you
know I love Ros um but the house red is
typically good house wies can be a
little bit off sometimes but uh it’s
it’s a really good choice I and I often
take it myself too and and and frankly
it’s probably the wine that the the
institution spent the most time uh in
selecting is their house wine wow so
it’s not a bad choice the bad choice
second cheapest
wine that is some really useful
information actually um okay this wine
the 30y old bordeau as well bordo um
it’s brown in color I see
that um the
smell don’t smells like a nice red
wine that’s about it’s superb
wine to get to give a little bit of help
in terms of not not help but just in
terms of context what happens when a
wine ages is that um you get something
called tertiary Aromas so the primary
Aromas is the fruit so the younger wine
the more the fruit you have an fruit
explosion almost in your mouth and the
older the wine the older the primary
Aromas so the fruits turn into tertiary
Aromas tertiary Aromas is like mushroom
forest floor those kind of walnuts those
kind of Aromas and so opening up the
wine at the right time means you have
the perfect balance with a little bit of
that age effect on the wine and and also
the prime aromance also what happens is
the tanins which is a little bit that
rustic feeling you can have around your
teeth uh which you have from coffee as
well or teen that kind of um dies off so
this has high tannins because it’s am I
right uh this one yeah so this one would
have had high tenant and they’ve now
softened oh they’ve softened and you’re
right in saying that this one would have
had to had high tenant because you
cannot age well if you don’t have a good
uh um what we call you don’t have the
legs to all the way to go all the way
let’s say so this one had the legs to go
all the way cuz it’s 30y old and I mean
it’s it’s perfect you could drink it for
another 10 years um and and we love this
wine it’s called K
1996 from Bordeaux from Bordeaux and
1996 which again was a good vintage yeah
good vintage and
um and I’m guessing at this age it’s
just the right time to drink it it’s
perfect right now I I wouldn’t wait
longer okay but some people like their
Wines in 1970s I mean there’s some wi
there people who open one from 1921 it’s
a it’s okay I need to ask you about that
uh cuz that’s crazy okay actually that’s
crazy on so many different levels right
but I I think that the craziest thing
about it is
it’s like a time capsule yeah imagine
everything that was going on in
1921 and suddenly somebody gives you a
bottle and says this wine has been put
into a bottle and you can enjoy
something that you know some of the the
most remarkable people in in the world
in the history of the Earth right were
having at the same time in 1921 isn’t
that nuts oh it’s amazing and frankly
it’s why the value of these products go
up is because of Supply demand over time
there’s less Supply and a bigger group
of people want to experience something
and there therefore that’s why
ultimately the the the price goes up and
I guess it’s very similar to supercars
that over time they can go up in value
as well because there’s less of less of
them available you cannot produce them
again because the Vintage is finished
you cannot re go go to the same vintage
again and and people love to collect
these things and and that’s why
typically not all not every single year
things go through Cycles like every
other product but typically those those
wines go up in value so this one this
this Kel seure 1996 would have it’s now
today probably valued at 175 roughly
yeah probably came out
at5 really oh wow that’s crazy huh what
a great investment then yeah and it
tastes good so it
tastes obviously but you say
175 but actually the taste of
it I guess yeah in a restaurant it would
be 450 or 500 right oh yeah depends
where you go some of these Mayfair ones
would set it for 1,000 but yeah no this
is the the buying it through a company
of ours who’s a specialist and has
relationships in Bordeaux to you know
but um in a restaurant it would easily
be 500 yeah I got to say this is
probably the best wine I’ve ever had oh
amazing yeah really GL to hear that well
I’m sure we’ll follow up with some
offers yeah yeah yeah this this is
unbelievable and you know on the point
of um samilar it’s not uh it’s not
something that you just learn for a year
and then suddenly you’re done yeah how
long does it take it takes several years
really yeah and you and of studying and
also just trying wines you know
recognizing how wine tastes how wine
should taste um the the professional
sorry the amateur can pick out one out
of 200 bottles roughly that is U not
right and a professional can pick out
one out of 20 bottles uh that that is
not right because there will be
different levels of uh how how
unconditioned a wi is let’s say but um
but you know it’s a tough job and it’s
definitely a job to be to respect
because um it they do it by Passion it
is definitely a passion industry and and
being able to share a nice bottle with
someone who who also appreciated is
always great and you know we have the
most amazing dinners for our clients of
course and I can imagine and uh we’re
going to have to bring you to one of
those dinners as well I’m I’m there and
uh I’ll change all my
plans and yeah it is really great it’s
it’s a really fantastic you know our
client-based love wine it’s it’s always
great to to share that those experience
with them but you know those that love
it I mean some them fly out you know PJ
to to Bordeaux and chopping you know
from Sant to Margot to santti Stef to
try wines I mean some people it’s their
it’s yeah it’s what they love most
outside of work uh and some people like
myself make it their work but wow it’s
it’s it’s fantastic industry in and and
how about English wine now because um
I’m not sure if you came on this event
for YPO but um they had us go to an
English
Vineyard uh that was producing
Sparkling White English wine yes and I
actually had one the other day which was
a Demis SEC yes sparkling English white
wine yes I can’t remember the name but
uh it
was on the sweeter side but fantastic
absolutely loved it what’s your thoughts
on the English yeah F juice yeah yeah
the English the English stuff
um look I think it has to be respected
uh in terms of um it it it needs to be
respected in terms of the the product
they make which is English particularly
English parking one it’s actually the
only premium product made you could say
um is really good quality a lot of blind
pings are happening between English
barking wines and champagne and and and
blindly people trying them you know
putting the English parking wine
sometimes at the top um really and and
the reason for it is really climate
change and you have the biggest
champagne houses buying land in no way
Sussex and and and West susex and in
other parts of the southern part of
England where the soil is amazing and
the climate is adjusting and making it
you know a better climate let’s say now
for grapes and they’re starting to make
really serious nice wine the problem is
that lvmh that would be buying yeah in
this in this situation it’s Titan um so
not yet
lvmh um but but they will undoubted at
some point soon by by some as well but
but this country makes wine but within
the wine space it’s really um sparkling
wine which is the the one that stands
out that’s really high quality and and
the labor cost is high in this country
versus Italy and Spain tell me about
it so uh so yeah sorry guys um so so
they cannot compete at the pr Cava they
have to compete at the champagne level
because they have got similar labor
costes as and utility cost and
everything costs the same as in France
if not more in London but um not in the
southern part of course of England but
anyways to answer your question they
make great wine and um what they also
make in this country which is actually
the best product in my industry um is
scotch oh really
we uh we obviously into fine wine we
spoke a lot about fine wine today but uh
our client base um asked us to help them
collect the nicest rare Spirits in this
world and some of the nicest rare
Spirits made in this world is made in
this country in Scotland Scotland in in
in Scotch is fantastic and some of them
go for half a million oh my God so it
was actually the point that I was going
to come on to about wine but let’s go on
to Scotch first I know that there was a
big boom and I’m so sure that pretty
much any of our customers that drink
were part of that
boom in the Japanese you know sentor
kind of uh infatuation with hiiki and
all the different variants of hiiki they
make a lot of products in in Japan uh in
in and but they’re particularly known
for their um for their for their whiskey
of course said uh and it’s terrific and
people collect you know Japanese
whiskey uh here or in America everywhere
else uh and it it’s a really high
quality product um and the big the
Scottish is is the best is in your
opinion would you say I think it is the
best yeah what what particular brand
would you say stands out Above the Rest
the the the number one front run runner
um is mccallan really yeah they’re top
of the league oh wow yeah where’s the
entry point where you actually know pure
class yeah just I can fine wi there
whiskey tasters and critic scores and
stuff like that and you know the Aging
they’ve got so much age to it right it’s
got 15 years 30 years 25 years some of
them 40 50 70 years and um how and what
Cask has been chosen what bottler chose
to actually bottle the whiskey from what
cast there’s so many things that come
into play but ultimately at the end of
the day it’s all about either if you
want to make money you ask someone like
us to say what what should I buy and why
or um if you just like to drink it you
buy it from reputable Merchants just
like us and there are many other very
good you know Merchants out there
selling scotch and some people just like
to spend 100K and open a bottle of oh my
God that’s just nuts and simple wine you
know some people spend you know £50,000
on a bottle of wine and they go and open
it so okay you mentioned a um there’s
bottles of wine from 1920s right have
you ever tasted a bottle from the 1920s
no never okay what’s the earliest bottle
of wine that you’ve tasted
um 1970 would be 1970 is the earliest
one right actually I sorry 1961 oh wow
is the oldest bottle of wine I’ve ever
had yes and and what did it taste
like forest floor it was supposed to be
amazing but I like my wines a bit
younger so uh frankly I didn’t H I don’t
know it it’s you know the wine still ex
let’s say the Wine’s still alive and and
the idea behind it is that you try a
product that is still so old yet still
alive and it really is good it’s just
the price is so high if you ask me would
you like to have something like we drink
it today I would prefer it PR but yeah
my my my answer back then was different
than my answer now but now I would say
yeah it was a little bit like it was a
bit odd but but 1961 is a phenomenal
winage so um okay and that that bottle
of wine would have been how much I think
it was like 2K or something like that
2.5k okay fine so what’s the most
expensive bottle of wine you’ve ever
sold and then the follow-up question is
what’s the most expensive bottle of wine
that you’ve ever drank okay so the the
most expensive bottle of one I ever sold
was uh £60,000
um it was a Lura musini 2005 uh Lura is
is a terrific domain L is a terrific um
producing in burgundy pin Noir of course
lady who makes the wine actually um and
um it’s a lady who makes the one and it
was three bottles as well so it was
180k um so that was the most expensive
one we ever sold or I ever sold
um in the most most expensive bottle of
one I ever had um I had the chance to
try a romanic Cony once um domain
romanic con have you seen a Siri
gentleman it just came out on Netflix Oh
I I’ve I’ve seen the ad okay all right
what about it they consider it to be the
best producer in the world oh really
some of them say that it’s the best say
the name again domain domain ROM okay
DLC is the acronym for it and uh in that
Ser we just came out to actually drink
it as well okay but they make different
wines um based on the terar which is the
piece of land let’s say in in burgundy
and they they have from most expensive
to to least expensive and I had the mo
the third most expensive one uh which
would be the Reish bore and uh I had a
2005
uh which which would be about you know
7K something like that wow uh had with a
friend yeah it was amazing that was
really amazing it’s it’s it’s better
when you don’t think about the price
yeah but if if you had it blindly you
and I if we had it blindly now you would
guarantee tell me that this this is
phenomenal I believe there’s a problem
in the wine industry as well where you
can end up being duped for fake wines is
that right yeah it’s absolutely correct
like in every other industry there is
this issue
um in in our industry there are two ways
you can be um D it’s it’s it’s one is
that you’re sold wine which ultimately
are not in a good condition anymore so
this this to to bring that to Super
cause it would be like someone sells you
a super car which is supposed to have
2,000 miles on it but actually has
150 and and and there’s a difference
right in in the quality of the product
and um in our industry that’s the case
and and frankly it happened to us
literally yesterday one of our clients
he calls up he said oh I’ve got this
case of wine uh I bought it elsewhere
I’d like you to help me sell it if
possible and we looked at it we’re like
hold on the value of your thing here is
25% of what you think it is and we’re
definitely not going to be involved with
selling it why because look just looking
at the pictures we we can already tell
that the quality of the wine is is not
optimal it hasn’t been stored properly
and so there are two areas here you have
to be sure you buy a product which even
if it’s real it’s actually been kept in
the right way um and the second is of
course that the product the juice that’s
inside the bottle is the real juice yeah
and
um and and and and that’s an it’s a
problem at the higher end people will
not bother making a fake bottle of 20 or
50 but you know when you’re talking
about 50,000 a bottle a lot you know
some people might think about making a
fake bottle and um and um with all the
tech in the world today I’m I’m assuming
that it’s probably not very hard to try
and
replicate the way a bottle should look
yeah the label and stuff like that so so
one of the thing is um they put numbers
so um there something called back labels
so they actually put back labels in
terms of um what number it is so they
might produce only 5,000 bottles of of
something and you might have number you
know 248 or whatever it is and normally
what you didn’t provide for very rare
stuff is you provide an invoice you
don’t say of course the amount you
bought something but an invoice from the
producer saying I am the buyer and the
owner of this particular product with
this particular code and therefore
you’re now you know it’s almost like
passing on you know ownership um and so
there ways around it to make sure that
you are careful but ultimately it’s a
problem in our industry and it is a
problem in in in in other Industries so
how do you um
ensure that the the the wine that you’re
buying isn’t a fake or isn’t a so I get
it that you’re you’re saying that an
invoice is there any other way I think
ultimately the the the number one thing
to do is make sure that you buy from
reputable Merchants whether it is
ourselves and there we have many
colleagues in this country and other
countries who do a very good job as well
and just making sure you buy from a
reputable person I think when you buy
online or from people that you don’t
know or private individuals who store at
home and stuff you know maybe it’s
better to buy from a professional um and
and the second thing um you should do is
is if something’s too good to be true
then probably you should stay away from
it um tell me about it yeah but but we
do do something is that we store the
wines in bond and in bond means you you
don’t have to pay VAT on the product
until exits the inbound warehouse and
inborn warehouses are uh only hmoc give
Authority for warehouses to be deemed in
bonds and when you store Wines in bonds
so when we bring in wines Goods in this
country from France and we store them
there’s a lot of paperwork involved and
the government is involved why because
you have a liability to pay taxes on the
products So when you buy wines in bond
from a reputable Merchant someone has
been around like a decade or more like
ourselves we’ve never bought a wine
we’ve never in the history of our
company we’ve never had one single
complaint about it anyone saying us that
it wasn’t as good as what the real thing
is we’ve never I’ve never heard of any
of my customers ever having bought fake
wine so so so so in many of my other
competitors in this country do a very
good job and there are many of them who
who who who who are respectable
merchants and so naturally my my answer
to your question would be just buy it
from you know a professional company
just like buying a superar from a
professional dealer you mentioned a few
times about investment right now and you
know like I was mentioning to you the
Enzo let’s say for example that we that
is right behind you
maybe four years ago or five years ago
might have been around
1.5 1.6 mil and now is around you know
definitely over 3.1 3.2 million pound
right
um such a rare car uh so anybody that
would have invested around that time is
laughing right yeah um this isn’t a
anomaly there’s many different cars uh
that if you picked right you would have
made a lot of
money and there’s you know things like
let’s say for example the Bugatti veyon
is is right now between anywhere between
1.2 1.4 mil um that is a car that I
personally feel quite strongly about
that I think over the next 5 to seven
years will at least at the very least be
worth 5 mil just purely because they’re
not making them anymore and the best
thing I find about cars which doesn’t
compare to uh art is the fact that
whilst it is a work of art uh you can
drive you can enjoy right and still
appreciate in
value um what would your views be on
wine you know as an investment class as
as a way to diversify your portfolio
yeah I think um it’s it’s similar to
what you just said about the Enzo here
or or the Bugatti Veron it’s been made
you can’t make it again the Vintage has
been made you cannot you’ll never go
back in time and made more of it so
Supply is that’s it came out it’s
fixed um now you do have to select
carefully you cannot just buy anything
of course but in terms of overall as a
sort of diversification tool for any
serious investor um if we go a tiny bit
technical let’s say on the subject um
fine wine is is an asset class which is
uncorrelated to mainstream Investments
such as shares or bonds so IE if the
shares equities like we saw not too long
ago are like dumping yeah it doesn’t
mean that wine is dumping necessarily
corre if anything it’s actually so
uncorrelated that it is a good
diversification asset oh wow and if you
speak to one of our um investment
Specialists that is ultimately what they
will bring forward is that your risk
adjusted return so the volatility of
your
portfolio uh
improves just like gold as soon as you
you add it to any portfolio so just like
gold you should always hold some of it
if you invest into shares and bonds and
fine wine um and and we’re quite big in
getting people on board in the team who
have you know serious Financial
background golden Sachs and these other
places and um and they all come board
because they see how powerful fine wine
is when you include it into a portfolio
of of various different other assets so
so as an asset classes it’s it’s
terrific it really does the job it
improves the risk of just return of your
portfolio now how much 5 to 10% is
probably what you should be doing um and
then how that’s when you partner with a
company like ours you can try to do it
yourself but it’s so much work so much
research and and and you have to build a
whole Logistics infrastructure I mean
and it’s just not worth it so if you
believe in it which we obviously do we
you should always partner up with with a
professional company if you decide to go
about doing it restaurants in London now
are letting you store wine some some
wine there so that you can go and eat
and then call up your bottle of wine
right that’s quite a cool concept right
so cool I love it yeah and ultimately
it’s a product to be enjoyed yeah and
that’s the fun thing about it a lot of
people buy five cases and then 5 years
later they say right I’m going to sell
those three and then with the profits I
make I’m going to drink the other two
you know and I love do that and that’s
what I do all the time too but oh and
how about your own collection then yeah
do you do you have a big collection of
for yourself yeah I collect seriously um
I love it yeah for for investment
purposes but also because I just love
wine and um how many bottles of wine
would you say you’ve got in your own
collection probably more than I should
don’t tell my wife but yeah definitely
over the Thousand oh wow there’s a um
video that’s gone viral on Tik Tok ailia
opening a bottle of wine in a very
unconventional way what’s your thoughts
on that so uh I I’ve personally never
done that before but I have heard about
it a few times and essentially it’s the
fact where you look at the bottle and
you think all right that cork is is is
so old or it’s not in a good condition
what I’m going to do is I’m going to
skip the process of taking out the Cork
and I’m just going to take off the head
wow and uh is that the reason why yeah
because essentially if if a bottle of
wine is old enough then the chances are
that the second that you put the cork
screw in is just going to disintegrate
crumbles yeah that’s right but that
doesn’t necessarily mean that the Wine’s
gone bad correct okay fine um and I’ve
opened many wines where uh you know it
crumbles apart and falls inside the wine
and then you kind of distill I thought
it was just me by the
way till you find out lots of other
people do as well um um but in this
circumstance what they they just skipped
the whole cork um pulling process and
they cut off the head and in order to do
that um you have this device which they
use as individ and and you essentially
burn almost with you heat it up so so
much you burn the head off and then you
pull it off it’s quite a unique way of
of doing it but that’s what what they’re
doing in the video I would be so nervous
that I’m going to be swallowing some
shards of glass that are going to
exactly that’s what I rip up my
intestines when I go to sleep at night
no yeah no I I don’t know if I would
drink from it either but obviously the B
was so special at this they thought it
was the right thing to do they thought
it was the right thing to do but I’ve
also seen that on champagne bottles with
the swords right oh yeah that’s great I
do it all the time do you I love it yeah
I’ll show you one day we can share with
the audience the the trick the trick is
that actually the way a bottle of wine
is is is made or bottle of champagne is
it’s two sides which are almost glued
together okay that’s the way to look at
it and if you if you look at it there
will be a very thin line where you can
see the actual two uh Parts being put
together and if you put your your sword
or your knife or whatever device you
have actually you can do it with the
bottom of a glass want no you can’t yeah
yeah I can do it and then you just do it
with the bottom it has to be very cold
the BT champagne you can just pop it out
like that and it pops out it’s amazing
it’s I do it all the time that I think
fine but obviously you have to be
careful where you shoot it well you have
to be careful where you shoot it but
again does the glass not no it doesn’t
and never and I’ve I’ve done it you know
20 plus times oh wow never encountered
it and never even heard of a story where
someone had glass in their mouth oh wow
okay I’m going to so if you want to have
a cool party trick there you go I do you
know what I might try it with like A5
bottle of prco first and then tell me
how it goes what’s the most extravagant
SL valuable collection that you’ve ever
seen of wine the biggest collection wine
I ever came across and I saw the
list in um I was able to buy some wines
from it uh was 60 million uh Euros
actually it was in the Euros 60 million
EUR that’s unbelievable and this person
had aass 60 million of wine over long
time uh but U but they had 60 million
years of wine yeah unbelievable is and I
mean you know you have to imagine this
is wine which even if you drink a bottle
every day you can finish it I mean um
and so 60 million pound were Euros worth
of
wine he’s sitting on it but I’m guessing
every day it’s going up in value oh yeah
he probably bought it for I mean he he
was someone who knew a long time ago
which wies to buy
like he didn’t tell me how much he
bought it for but I wouldn’t be
surprised if you bought it for 20 and
any any triple his money way isn’t that
brilliant that is
great it’s great for him great you know
and and and ultimately yeah it probably
worth more today because it was three
years ago I think my problem is I’d keep
on dipping into the stash you know I
know that’s why you have to keep your
stash with the with a warehouse yeah
exactly I’ll keep it with you yeah he
was dipping in his own Supply but which
you should right $60 million of wine I
mean go enjoy it I I almost feel that
with cars as well you know we get a lot
of people that will buy you know million
pound plus cars yeah and they won’t
drive it and they’ll you know they’ll
offer it to us yeah and it will have
after 5 years of ownership only have
1,000 miles on it yeah and you’re like
that’s one of the greatest cars ever
made and you’ve only driven it a couple
hundred miles every year yeah now get it
the the the value is retained but on the
same token I don’t know if I’d have the
the will to just say nope I’m going to
uh you know I’m not going to touch that
car I’m not going to drive it whatever
no I’m 100% with you on this subject I I
I think you know we have what we call
collectors people who really enjoy a
good deal making money from buying wines
but at the same time occasionally
opening up you know a few of them and
and I I think that’s and also timately
you know that’s what the product is the
product is made to ultimately be enjoyed
by someone cars as well it’s ultimately
made for someone to drive at some point
you know they’re saying Yello right
exactly yeah there you go yeah think in
one sentence that sent is it yeah see
I’d be doing I mean right now I’m in the
proper mood for YOLO so I’d be opening
up
crazy crazy B collection is not here
yeah yeah so I’ve I’ve heard of watches
going for you know 5 million 10 million
or whatever it is and cars just go nuts
right there’s the 250 GTO Ferrari that
that I think it was like 25 mil Euros
not too long ago um but in your
knowledge what’s the most expensive
bottle of wine that’s ever been sold on
the market um recently we had a um um at
auction a ble of DC D we talked about
earlier uh they top um wine that they
make is called Laro Min
country and the Vintage was 1945 which
is obviously the end of War but also it
happens to be an exceptional vintage uh
and that bottle went for half a million
dollars one bottle now typically I’d be
like oh my God that’s so much money but
on the same
token I guess the person that’s buying
that isn’t probably going to drink it
right would you say that that it’s it’s
some it’s something it’s memorabilia
right yeah in the same way that um you
know somebody might have a piece of art
on their wall this is one of from the
the most
important Wine House yeah in the world
yeah and you know from such an important
time in history y then to be honest with
you it kind of makes sense no I agree
with you uh in terms of they don’t
always drink him sometimes they look at
his piece of art so last weekend I was
in the house
of a client who has become a friend of
mine now and U he had every single
beautiful bottle you can imagine I mean
an estate the estate was was you know so
stunning um and naturally what you do is
you then show your friends let’s have a
look at my wine seller and he showed the
bottles and obviously with all the
technology that they all put in the
right places and with the lighting I
mean it was just stunning to see
probably one of the nicest wine sets
I’ve ever seen in my life and uh and and
obviously they put forward some bottles
they’ve been able to of the years which
are very special which might not
necessarily be drunk but it’s almost
like a piece of art that they want to
show their friends but half a million
dollar for bottled wine is is a lot of
money yeah and I bet I bet you came down
back then it probably came out at at you
know 10 quid or something 10 quid what
is the fascination with petruse because
that’s the one that you
see you know even with the new age
Instagram kind of I want to show off
yeah what I’m spending my money on you
see the I just spent x amount of
thousand on puse right I’ve gone to this
restaurant I’ve just spent 5K on petruse
why is that brand and that bottle of
wine so bloody expensive yeah it’s a
Bordeaux wine it’s a right Bank wine
from pomal um it is it is just amazing
really I’ve I’ve had it of course and
and uh many other wine collectors would
have tried it but yeah it is pretty
pretty expensive um you you’ve got a few
Wines in that right Bank region so we
spoke about something in on the p as
well but you have lafur and lupan some
people would say oh this is the
Lamborghini of wines and that one is the
Ferrari of wines and that one is the
Maserati wines or whatever and yeah p
petruse is considered to be one of the
best ride bank or if not one of the best
wines made in the world and it is really
amazing really but you have to put down
£5,000 or £3,000 for younger vintages
every sip try is like2 200 oh yeah if
you think like that yeah true I don’t
know how I’d be able to drink that but
um you know um with a car let’s
say the difference between a Ferrari
F430 and a
458 was so
substantial it’s like going analog
versus you know digital yeah yeah and
you know the the the price differential
was definitely Justified right but then
you go from the 458 to the 4 A
and yeah the the difference is good but
it’s incrementally you know not as much
as the 430 to the 458 and then 48 to the
f8 is you know like this much and then
each time it goes up it’s going smaller
and smaller and smaller law of
diminishing returns right so the wines
that we drunk today in my mind are
fantastic yeah so I just and and so
they’re so
um so much better than your 20b bottle
of wine yeah that I’m just trying to
work out how much better can a bottle of
petruse 5,000 be compared to something
like this is it is it incrementally much
yeah lower yeah it does that make sense
it makes perfect sense and absolutely is
true it’s not that you have a 10 times
better experience it’s just that in in
in this level of EX perfection to just
be a tiny bit more perfect than someone
else it’s so difficult that the more you
perfect you get the quicker the price
goes up because there’s only just a few
bottles left in the world which might be
better than the one you had and there’s
also just a lot of people in the last 20
years as you know who got rich and who
want to buy nice things and demand has
outstripped Supply really and uh and
therefore people are willing to pay a
lot of money to have a bottle of wine
nowadays wow um and U but you’re right
saying it’s not ites it’s not 10 times
better uh but but these have been
carefully selected by us because we love
these wines and for this for the M for
the money we pay which of course is not
cheap these are great B of wi this part
of the podcast is a quick fire round I’m
just going to ask you a bunch
of
questions answer them as quick as
possible so what’s the strangest
scenario that you’ve ever found yourself
in drinking uh shotting really nice
Wines in Singapore by because I was with
a client and he was just his his view
was we would just Chuck these wines and
I was trying to enjoy them and I was
just going one after the other and was a
bit strange cuz we got drunk in the
space of half an hour and I thought I
was going to have a really nice dinner
did you have to play any games with dice
and stuff like that but down there in
Singapore uh no I didn’t go down the
dice route no okay I did
sorry um your favorite wine and how much
does it retail for my favorite wine is a
muton ro sh 4 cuz that’s the one that I
tried when I was young that gave me the
love of wine as I said uh and retails
for probably £500 one unique skill that
you possessed that nobody knows about I
guess I have a special ability to
remember things which which applies to
business too but for wine um it’s the
ability to remember how I I Tred to Wine
uh so I got a a aromatic memory if you
can call it that way so um the other day
my colleague here she was uh describing
how she tried a wine and what Aromas she
had and before she she could explain to
me what wine was I said was it’s that
wine and I was right and I so so I I
never thought I had that skill until I
over the years I started to smell wine
and know quite quickly what it was but
by the way you know when um the flavors
that you pick in a wine that that that
come across in a
wine that’s because of the soil that
they’re grown on right so that if if
there’s that type of fruit or uh am I
right in saying that if if there’s if
that’s type of produce is being grown
nearby or something like that yeah
absolutely right so in in burgundy um
they use the grape Pon Noir and just a
neighbor will make the same use the same
grape in the same climate of course
maybe tiny bit different if an angle on
on on the mountain but um but it will
taste different and and it’s often the
soil The Talk
so the French called that which is the
fancy word that they use and the is
essentially the soil so the soil talks
to you and that’s what you try later
that’s why the soil just 300 MERS apart
can be 10 times more valuable oh wow
yeah sorry how many meters apart you can
be 300 M away and your soil can be 10
times more value than your neighbor no
way in certain are what’s your favorite
way to unwind after work I play tennis
but followed by a glass of wine
but yeah tennis my my unwinding hardest
decision that you’ve ever had to make in
business I mean like everyone else it’s
firing people it’s never easy you you
you get on with people you you you you
build relationships you you go through
through years of stuff and you know you
have to let them go it’s never easy it’s
never pleasant but ultimately it’s your
job when you’re a CEO is you have to you
know grow a company if you don’t you
competitors will outgrow you and then
you’ll let everyone go so yeah it’s the
most unpleasant thing there is but you
have to make them you have you have to
make them and you have to make them well
every single
time I couldn’t agree more um and best
regon for wine bordeau that’s my
favorite it’s got everything it’s got
the wines and it’s got the history so
it’s got the Chateau and if you’ve never
been you have to go really I’ve never
been uh it’s it’s magnificent you go
there in May June weather’s stunning the
restaurants are good you go and have
dinner in the chat you sleep in the chat
you go jumping in their pools you wake
your day up you have great wines for
lunch it’s it’s beautiful not only for
the wines but also for the the history
let’s say of the region it’s it’s it’s
absolutely stunning it’s my favorite
region and I I go there maybe three four
times a year and every time I love it
you’re going to have to give me some
advice cuz definitely want to go go with
the better house um and one final
question what’s one piece of advice that
you’ll give to our audience ultimately I
think the the advice I would give is
wine is is ultimately something that
uh is personal and never feel the public
social pressure of having to know let’s
say um what wines you should choose or
how wine should taste you should just
always just buy whatever you like and
and and and describe a wine whatever way
you think it is described and if you
stick to your first instinct it’s
actually in our industry what they say
it’s always truth but but wine is a
product that’s meant to be enjoyed and
you know open the bottles and have fun
with your friends and and and and don’t
take it too too serious uh a lot of
people get scared of find wine because
they think it’s a very serious subject
and they should know more about it than
everyone else but ultimately it’s just a
wonderful thing to enjoy with people so
maybe don’t don’t take it too serious
but if you want to do it seriously I
guess partner up with a professional
company but yeah that would be my
advice some good advice I I really
enjoyed these bottles of wine I think I
might have enjoyed them too much I have
to get a lift home if if one of you boys
can drop me off um but um that was great
thank you thank you for having me really
great it good fun yeah really appreciate
it so guys we learned so much about the
wine industry today and what a great
guest we had on the show today if you
like this episode please don’t forget to
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until next time see you later
2 Comments
Great podcast.
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