From SceneAsia:
Andy Xie has some advice to fine-wine collectors: Sell your Lafite now.
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- Is there a Lafite bubble?
The famously blunt economist — he left Morgan Stanley after writing an email that described Singapore as a money-laundering hub, and has called the current Chinese asset market a “giant Ponzi scheme” — wrote on his blog that there is a bubble for Lafite, the Bordeaux of choice for China’s nouveau riche.
Written in his trademark breezy style, the long post is an engaging read — especially if you’ve been dabbling in fine-wine speculation. His argument: Lafite has spectacularly outperformed all assets, even other fine wines, which in turn has caused people to hoard the wines. (Prices for the not-yet-released 2008 vintage have gotten a further boost in China from a new bottle design that features the Chinese character for the number eight.)
Add in the problem of fake wines, and you have a stock of overpriced bottles whose value is being diluted by undetectable forgeries....MORE
