首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Every year Berry Bros & Rudd, Britain’s oldest wine merchant, issues a pocket-sized price list. Reading old copies makes amateur
Every year Berry Bros & Rudd, Britain’s oldest wine merchant, issues a pocket-sized price list. Reading old copies makes amateur
admin
2022-08-22
359
问题
Every year Berry Bros & Rudd, Britain’s oldest wine merchant, issues a pocket-sized price list. Reading old copies makes amateurs of quality quaff want to time-travel. In 1909 a case of 12 bottles of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 1891, Burgundy’s most famous Grand Cru, cost 180 shillings (about £1,000, or $1,300, in today’s money). In its historic London store, which opened in 1698, a single 18-year-old bottle of similar quality now sells for £25,000.
Fine wine is expensive to store, and its rarity and high transaction costs make it—oddly enough—an illiquid asset. Even so, its appreciation with age and perceived ability to diversify portfolios have made it popular with investors over the past two decades. The value of wine exchanged yearly between consumers,
connoisseurs
and collectors—the secondary market—has quadrupled to $4bn since 2000, says Justin Gibbs of Liv-ex, a wine-trading platform. He reckons that just 15% of those buying wine on his website are doing so to drink it. The rest see it as a store of value.
Fine wines are traded privately, at auctions or through exchanges like Liv-ex, where members bid for listed crus. The equivalent of an initial public offering comes when estates release their latest vintages. The wine world also has asset managers, which buy and sell hundreds of cases on behalf of clients in the hope of turning a profit. Britain is a big trading hub, notably because it offers the ability to store wine free of customs and vat provided it is kept in one of the few taxman-approved warehouses. Many professional buyers thus hold their stock under the same huge vaults. Updating records is sometimes all it takes to transfer ownership.
Investing in wine has long meant buying
Bordeaux
. But that is changing: the French region now accounts for 60% of secondary transactions, down from 95% in 2011. The new picks have star appeal. Bordeaux prices have done well in the past three years, rising by a third. But the value of fine Burgundy has more than doubled, according to the Liv-ex 1000 index.
One reason is that greater price transparency has boosted buyers’ confidence. Fine wines, which do not generate cash flows, cannot be valued using financial metrics such as price-to-earnings ratios. But exchanges and websites like Wine Searcher, which gathers merchant quotes from around the world, provide reference points. Apps that collect reviews from critics and consumers also help; so do gadgets to improve traceability (though fakes remain a problem). Some of this cash finds its way to new terroirs.
Investors are becoming more sophisticated, too. Chinese buyers, whose thirst for Bordeaux kept prices afloat through the financial crisis, fled the region after 2012, when a crackdown on corruption meant demand for luxury goods dried up. Many have since turned to Burgundy. Most wine-investment funds, which in the 2000s managed €350m ($396m), almost all of it invested in Bordeaux, went bust when the market tanked. Such outfits have since reformed, trying harder to diversify.
Recent currency shifts have made top crus a relative bargain. Burgundy was already cheaper than Bordeaux, and a dollar rally after 2015 has put the region on American and Asian buyers’ radars (
the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the greenback
). Italian, Californian and other French regions have also become fashionable, says Philip Staveley of Amphora, a wine-portfolio manager. But the best Burgundy is produced in tiny volumes. Chateau
Margaux, a Bordeaux star, puts out 11,000 cases a year; Domaine de la Romanee-Conti makes 450. That amplifies price movements.
Experts fear a bubble. "Everyone tells us it’s getting absurd," says Philippe Masset, a wine scholar. Younger vintages have become pricier than older ones—the wine equivalent of a yield-curve inversion. The Burgundy region gained 8% in November, while all others plateaued. Whether that lasts may depend on the value-for-money of the vintage released this month. But for now, investors see the glass half-full.
(选自《经济学人》2019年1月5日)
The word "connoisseurs" underlined in Paragraph 2 most probably means________.
选项
A、managers
B、assessors
C、buyers
D、owners
答案
B
解析
语义题。connoisseurs意为“鉴定师”,故正确答案为B(评估师)。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/l90O777K
本试题收录于:
CATTI二级笔译综合能力题库翻译专业资格(CATTI)分类
0
CATTI二级笔译综合能力
翻译专业资格(CATTI)
相关试题推荐
Howmanytypesofdriverscouldtheself-drivingcardistinguishnow?
Listentothefollowingpassage.WriteashortEnglishsummaryofaround150wordsofwhatyouhaveheard.Thispartofthetest
Manyplacesontheearthhavebeenover-exploited,includingAntarctica.
Nooneknowsexactlyhowmany【C1】______peoplethereareintheworld,butestimates【C2】______thefigureisover【C3】______.Then
Nooneknowsexactlyhowmany【C1】______peoplethereareintheworld,butestimates【C2】______thefigureisover【C3】______.Then
Nooneknowsexactlyhowmany【C1】______peoplethereareintheworld,butestimates【C2】______thefigureisover【C3】______.Then
TheartofpublicspeakingbeganinancientGreeceover【C1】______.Now,Twitter,instantmessaging,e-mail,blogsandchatforum
Thisisofferedasatextbookillustrationoftheprinciplethatvotersarefarshrewderthanmostpoliticiansbelieve.Thiscas
Theadvocates—mainlyfamilytherapydoctors—areapplyinganewapproachtoeverythingfrommarriageconflicttopsychosis.
SomeAmericancollegesarestate-supported,othersareprivately______,andstillothersaresupportedbyreligiousorganizatio
随机试题
“五同时”是指企业生产(经营)的领导者和组织者,必须明确安全与生产是一个有机的整体,要将安全与生产的产量(进度)一起抓,在生产工作的时候,同时计划、布置、安排、检查、总结、评比安全工作。()
患儿,10岁。扁桃体发炎3天,近2天来出现左膝关节剧痛,伴有高热,畏寒,烦躁不安。查体:体温39.5℃,脉搏110次/分,呼吸26次/分,血压112/75mmHg,神志清楚,左膝关节明显肿胀、皮温升高及压痛,关节活动明显受限。若患儿早期未能进行积极的处
以下哪个是运动疗法的适应证
患者,女性,22岁。因右下智齿低位埋伏阻生,要求拔除。在注射局部麻醉药后牙关紧闭,可能是发生了()
委托人应当预支付监理人实施监理所必需的()。
[背景资料]某18层办公楼,建筑面积32000m2,总高度71m,钢筋混凝土框架一剪力墙结构,脚手架采用悬挑钢管脚手架,外挂密目安全网,塔式起重机作为垂直运输工具,2009年11月9日在15层结构施工时,吊运钢管时钢丝绳滑扣,起吊离地20m后,钢管
标志着我国进入航天时代的事件是()。
“若要美德得以保存,法律是必需的;而若要法律得以遵守,美德则是不可缺少的。”这句话说明法律与道德是相互对立的。()
toscopewithA.alargepopulationgivesmore【T1】______forB.【T2】______feedalargepopulationC.couldbeobtained【T
Whenthesunstartedtoset,Jimheadedforhome.Hehadhuntedlongenough.Justthenhesawthereis,30feetinfrontofhi
最新回复
(
0
)