(Wine-Searcher) - Wine speculation is as predictable as it is expensive.

Why is it that wine investment causes many wine lovers to get so out-of-joint?

"I'm uncomfortable with wine investment on a number of levels. It's a drink" wrote UK wine writer Jamie Goode the other day. Most wine people (generally those with enough money to buy and enjoy wine, but not enough capital to buy with any thought of resale) get truculent when it comes to this subject. I'm no different. Why on earth would someone buy wine to speculate on its value? Why would someone go out to buy a book with the notion of selling it on later? It gives you the sort of feeling you might get on learning your daughter has just got engaged to a professional online poker player. I mean, I know that's a legitimate enterprise and, quite frankly, most of us would like to work from home but, darling, really?

It is one of the rare instances where the wine world can show some display of bolshiness. Yes, it would be remarkable to see Jancis Robinson MW or Eric Asimov stand on a chair at a UGC (Union des Grands Crus) Bordeaux tasting, Das Kapital in one hand, raising the other fist to the roof to decry the pig-dog western neo-liberal elites and their fetishism of fictitious capital, but it never quite goes that far.