[2008.08.23] 投资葡萄酒：买家和酒窖

Investing in wine
投资葡萄酒

Buyers and cellars
买家和酒窖

Aug 21st 2008
From The Economist print edition

Bordeaux starts to look a bit bubbly
波尔多开始变得有些热闹了。

A WRINKLED nose from Robert Parker, a masterly American wine critic, used to be enough to send wine prices down deeper than the Bordeaux cellars where he does his tasting. The popular grape-based alcoholic drink is developing as an asset class, and investors have started to trade derivative products in the form of en primeur, a type of wine future. But a new breed of rich investors and wine drinkers in China, India and Russia have sent en primeur prices so high that not even Mr Parker’s nose can bring them back down.
美国人罗伯特•帕克是一位大师级品酒师。他鼻子一皱，就足以使他所品的那种酒的价格一路下跌，比他在波尔多品酒时所在的酒窖还要低。这种颇受大众欢迎的用葡萄酿制的酒精饮料正在发展成为一种资产；投资商们已开始以期酒的形式来进行衍生产品交易。但是来自中国、印度、和俄国的一群新贵投资者和饮酒者已经将期酒的价格推向了极高的水平，连帕克先生的鼻子也无法使它们回落了。

En primeur is the French term for wine before it is bottled. Speculators are allowed to buy a portion of the stuff in the hope that the wine proves to be a hit with the retail and investment market two or three years later. Every spring a group of investors, wholesalers and wine critics descend on a few established Bordeaux wine producers to taste the fermented grape juice. The system has been employed for years by producers as a way to complement their main source of income. They can earn money while their top wines wait to be bottled and sold. These days, all eyes are on Mr Parker, who sniffs and sips and then awards the wine a score out of 100, which the buyers and sellers in the market use to establish a price. Better wines get higher scores and are more expensive.
期酒的法文拼写是en primeur，指的是尚未装瓶上市的葡萄酒。投资者被允许购买一定量的这种酒（注：预售以箱（即12瓶，24半瓶或者6大瓶）为单位，且一箱酒都得是一个品种的酒），以期在两到三年之后它能成为零售和投资市场上的热门品种。每年春季都会有大批的投资商、批发商和品酒师涌入法国波尔多的几家知名的酒庄去品尝发酵的葡萄汁。这种体系已经运行数年，酿酒商们将此作为其主要收入来源之外的一种补充收入。在他们的上等葡萄酒等待装瓶上市时，酿酒商们可以藉此获利。在这段时间里，帕克先生成为众人瞩目的焦点。他通过闻、尝给葡萄酒打分，满分是100分。市场上的购买者和销售者便依据这分数给酒定价。优质的葡萄酒得分更高，价格也更昂贵。

But the most recent round of en primeur trading has set a precedent. The vintage was not good but the prices remained high. Mr Parker awarded a relatively low 90-93 points for the 2007 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild en primeur, but cases still went for £2,500 ($4,900). Three years earlier he gave a similar score to Chateau Lafite, and the cases only sold for £950.
但是最近一轮的期酒交易却出现了前所未有的情况。虽然酒的年份不佳，但是其价格始终居高不下。帕克先生给年份为2007的拉菲罗富奇庄园的期酒（Chateau Lafite-Rothschild）打了较低的90~93分，但是该酒每箱仍售到2500英镑（约合4900美元）。三年前，他对这一品牌打出了相近的分数，结果每箱只能卖到950英镑。

Money has flooded into the wine-investment market, routed through some former City traders who have set up wine funds. The Liv-ex100 Index, which charts bottled-wine prices, has shrugged off the credit crunch and outperformed global stock markets. The index is up 9.5% over the past 12 months, though it dipped a bit in July. Meanwhile, the tax on imported wine in Hong Kong was scrapped取消 in March, after dropping from 80% to 40% last year, further boosting Asian demand.
曾为伦敦金融界的交易商们已经建立了葡萄酒基金。大量的资金便藉此渠道涌入葡萄酒投资市场。由伦敦国际酿酒商交易所发布的Liv-ex100指数记录瓶装葡萄酒的价格。目前，该指数已经摆脱了信用紧缩并且其表现优于全球证券交易市场。虽然该指数在7月份略有下跌，但它在过去的一年中上升了9.5%。与此同时，香港在去年将酒税由80%降至40%后，又于今年3月份取消了酒税。此举进一步刺激了亚洲地区对酒类的需求。

Some suspect that the new consumers sometimes care more about the brand than the quality. (Lafite, for example, is particularly popular in China because of its status.) They also claim that Bordeaux risks alienating its core group of European and American investors and drinkers with high en primeur prices. The old traditions are beginning to change. Some négociants, the wine wholesalers that link the chateaux to the traders, have boycotted this year’s vintage because of high prices. This is a bold move. Refusing to buy up this year’s wine will mean they forfeit access to next year’s vintage. The old-schoolers now find themselves wishing for both a run of bad vintages and a downturn in the emerging economies. Only then, they say, will sobriety return.
一些人认为，新客户有时会更多的关注酒的品牌而较少关注酒的品质（例如，法国的拉菲罗富奇因为其地位而在中国大受欢迎）。他们也声称波尔多正在作出冒险举动，通过期酒的高价位将其主要的欧美投资者和饮用者同外界隔离开来。旧时的传统正开始改变。由于价格过高，一些连接各酒庄与交易者的批发商们已经集体抵制今年的葡萄酒。这是一个大胆的举动。因为拒绝收购今年的酒就意味着他们在往后的年份中也将无法进行收购。现在，持老派观点的人发觉自己既希望低品质的葡萄酒可以销售出去，又希望新兴经济能有所回落。他们说只有到那时人们才会在此清醒过来。

注释：Robert Parker Jr. 是最有影响力的酒评家。他自己办了一份刊物「Wine Advocate」，专门刊载他对世界各地葡萄酒的评分报告。这些评分报告有部份收集成书，成为很多酒商和爱好者卖酒和买酒的参考标准。Parker 是美国人，以前不喝葡萄酒，只喝可口可乐。但有一年他追随女朋友去法国，喝不下法国昂贵的可口可乐，被迫改喝葡萄酒。就像美国人说的，the rest is history，以后的事我们都知道了。”

拉菲.罗施尔德庄园（Chateau Lafite-Rothschild）
拉菲庄是波尔多顶级庄园，也是世上最著名德酒庄第一眼印象是及其静谧而有序的一等园。拉菲庄是悦人的17世纪的庄园建筑，公共厅和卧室的亲切的规模，营造乡土生活的气氛。但是在平静的表象下，一场变革却悄悄的进行了25年。在世界上各国各地，各门各派的酒王中，最出名的酒王应算是法国波尔多 菩依乐村的拉菲庄了。

译者：zhs2046   http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13499&extra=page%3D1