Wine Funds: An Alternative Turning Sour?

Abstract

This article examines the performance, selectivity, and market-timing abilities of wine fund managers over the 2000–2013 period. The authors hypothesize that wine fund managers should be able to profit from market inefficiencies on the wine market and generate abnormal returns for investors. Their results show that fund managers’ overall selectivity and market-timing abilities appear to be limited. Only one fund offers positive risk-adjusted returns and two funds show a tendency for market timing. Considering non-quantifiable risks, wine funds thus do not appear to be interesting investments.